Through a series of misfortunes, Charlene Kobetis lost her Pike Creek, Delaware home to a sheriff's sale on April 12th.
She was told that by law she had about six weeks to clear out her belongings. So she was shocked when she came back one day after a neighbor called and found everything had been cleared out for her, and workmen were on the scene.
"I actually felt like I was going to faint," she told Action News. "The blood just left me. They kicked in the door, and they took my deadbolt right off."
The home was purchased by Brian O'Neil of Pie One Investments. Kobetis, who has been living at her son's home, says O'Neil showed up while she was at the Hayloft Circle house.
She says she received another shock when she asked what happened to her possessions.
"He said quite calmly, looking me in the face, 'They're in the landfill,'" said Kobetis. "I lost it. He never said, 'I'm so sorry, there must have been a miscommunication, I don't know what happened.' Nothing."
Kobetis says some boxes even contained papers with her social security number.
"There were bins of things that we were still going to go through, pictures and all kinds of things, furniture that people were coming to buy," she said.
New Castle County Police are now conducting a criminal investigation. One source in law enforcement tells me this appears to be a case of burglary and felony theft.
Without commenting specifically on Kobetis's case, New Castle County Sheriff Trinidad Navarro says there are Sheriff's Sale procedures that must be followed.
"People have time after the sale to redeem the property or several weeks before confirmation," said Navarro. "After confirmation we can have the property deeded. But that still doesn't give a person the authority to go into a house and remove someone else's property."
We spoke by phone with Brian O'Neil, who said he had no comment on the advice of his attorney.
