TAMPA, Fla. — Days after Victoria Swearinger, her son, and daughter-in-law began moving boxes into their new home, the landlord's cleaning crew changed the locks and tossed out their belongings, including family heirlooms.
The family made a call for action in January, with Swearinger telling ABC Action News, “Stuff that I’ve had since my daughter was two years old. When my grandma died. It's gone.”
New Port Richey Police said it was a civil matter, so the family sued Sylvan Homes after they said the rental company refused to reimburse them for losses.
The complaint states, “…a cleanout company hired by Sylvan Homes had made a mistake and cleaned out the wrong property.”
Sylvan Homes did not return repeated calls from ABC Action News' Jackie Callaway, and their attorney refused to comment. Now, weeks later, the family's lawyer confirms they are satisfied after reaching a confidential settlement agreement with Sylvan Homes.
We also wanted to know what happened to Ron Bharath, who we interviewed in August, after $4,000 vanished from his checking account. A hacker made 18 withdrawals the same day someone bombed Bharath’s email with thousands of junk messages.
Cyber security expert Keyaan Williams said cyber criminals use what's known as email bombing as a distraction. They’re using that flood of emails to hide their tracks.
Williams explained how email bombing works.
“You receive so many emails in a short amount of time you don't notice the very important message that comes across that authorizes a bank transaction or shows that you're logging in from another device," he said.
Chase denied Bharath’s claim saying the transactions came from a known device. ABC Action News notified the bank that Bharath never authorized the transactions. The update, Chase did end up returning $4000 to his account.
Finally, we got good news from 94-year-old Delores Satler, whose oven exploded without warning in December.
She wrote to ABC Action News after GE refused to pay for the glass door replacement on the 2-and-a-half-year-old appliance. We contacted GE, and days later, the appliance maker called Satler and offered to replace the glass free of charge.
She now has a new oven door.
Since January, our Taking Action segment has obtained more than $20,000 for consumers who made a call for action.
If you are dealing with a stubborn consumer issue, contact Taking Action Investigator Jackie Callaway at Jackie@ABCactionnews.com.
