An Ohio man is making national headlines after claiming he took a bulldozer to his home to prevent his bank from repossessing it.
Terry Hoskins told NBC affiliate WLWT that when the bank began foreclosure proceedings to collect $160,000, he decided to tear the home down in order to "make banks think twice about it before they take someone’s home."
Hoskins said the lender, New Richmond-based RiverHills Bank, turned down a buyer’s offer of $170,000 for the home, which Hoskins valued at nearly $350,000.
In a series of interviews with WLWT, Hoskins said that after the Internal Revenue Service placed liens on his business, the bank moved to foreclose on his business and his home, located in Clermont County near the Kentucky border in southwestern Ohio.
After WLWT first reported Hoskins’ version of events Feb. 18, the story was picked up by The Associated Press on Tuesday and published in newspapers and blogs nationwide.
Courtis Fuller, the WLWT reporter who broke the story, said it has "struck a nerve with the public."
"Good for him. I hope more and more people start doing things like this," said one comment on the AP story published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Uh, how exactly does this help his situation?" said another.
RiverHills Bank has so far declined to comment.
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