Spokane Valley homeowner says neighbor took advantage of foreclosure, sold her belongings at a yard sale

Imagine arriving home from work and finding your neighbor holding a yard sale – of your stuff.

That’s what happened to Karina Jordan on Friday afternoon, when she stopped to check on her house on East Fairview Avenue in Spokane Valley and saw some of her belongings for sale in her neighbor’s driveway.

“I was hysterical. I freaked out,” Jordan said Monday. “It’s a good thing my fiance was there to calm me down.”

Jordan called the police as she went through the house trying to find out what was missing.

“I’ve lost my cedar hope chest and nearly everything that was in it,” Jordan said, “and also a child-size desk that was mine. It’s horrible.”

The house is in foreclosure, but Jordan said she has until August to clear out her belongings. She hasn’t lived there since 2013 but said her daughter lived there until this past winter.

Neighbor Christina Steckler, who was holding the yard sale, said a company showed up to clean out the house last week, and workers asked her if she’d like some of the things from the garage.

“No one has lived in the house since January. I didn’t think much about it; I just thought we were helping out,” Steckler said Monday. “Now I feel really stupid for not having checked things out.”

Michael Ross owns AAA Window Cleaning and Construction Clean-Up, which was hired to clean up Jordan’s property. He disputes Steckler’s account.

“We did not give anyone access to the house,” Ross said. He said he was hired by a property management company to haul away 60 yards of debris and tree limbs, to clean out the fridge in the house and put a lock box on the front door.

“We absolutely did not take anything out of the house,” Ross said.

Ross has been cleaning up foreclosed homes for 10 years and said he’s never had anything like this happen.

Spokane Valley police are investigating the incident.

Department spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory said two police reports were filed Friday: one by Jordan and one filed by Steckler claiming harassment from another neighbor in the area.

Jordan’s house is scheduled for a trustee sale Aug. 5. She said she began working with SNAP last summer to try to avoid foreclosure but was unsuccessful.

Loretta Cael, SNAP housing counseling program manager, said the pending foreclosure may be the key to what happened to Jordan’s property.

Cael said if homeowners are delinquent on their mortgage and move out before the trustee sale, the lender sends out “door knockers” to check if the home is occupied.

“If you don’t live there, then the lender has a right to secure the property,” Cael said.

Jordan said at this point she just wants her things back. She hopes yard-sale shoppers from Friday will allow her to buy back the cedar hope chest, the school desk that was hers as a child and anything else that was sold.

“At this point, I don’t care about the criminal stuff or if there is any criminal action on anyone’s behalf,” Jordan said. “I just want my things back.”