BEN HALLMAN
COLLATERAL
DAMAGE
Mogelberg, 38, spends hours
each day hunched over an old
laptop, firing off increasingly desperate messages to bank officials,
demanding thousands of dollars
in compensation for harm he says
his family suffered.
A big man with black, wraparound frame glasses, he lost his
last job nearly two years ago, and
now is a stay-at-home dad of sorts
to the niece — Jaylyn, a toddler
who was left with the family a year
ago by Genel’s troubled brother.
“I won’t stop until heads roll,”
he says, his voice rising. “I want
people fired. I want people held
accountable.”
Genel, 34, agrees that the family was wronged, that Bank of
America should have honored a
lease that doesn’t expire until
the end of September. She shares
Mogelberg’s outrage over the loss
of belongings they claim a bank
contractor stole while they were
locked out of their home.
But increasingly, his preoccupation seems a distraction from
more pressing demands.
Genel fears she will lose her
job as a purchasing manager at a
power company, the family’s sole
source of income. Already, she has
been warned about being late and
HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
“I won’t stop until heads
roll. I want people fired.
I want people held
accountable.”
missing work. She was permitted to retrieve nothing when she
was forced from her home, so she
wears the same work outfit — a
striped skirt and black sweater —
nearly every day.
Her two preteen sons, who are
10 and 11, have moved in with
their father. Jaylyn, who recently
took her first steps in a hotel like
this one, isn’t sleeping well. Genel had to borrow $80 from a coworker to buy food and diapers.
The family has just a few belongings: a box of ibuprofen, a bottle
Mogelberg
outside of his
truck in the
Hilton parking
lot where his
family’s scant
possessions
are stored
in the small
backseat.