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Alamo Man Evicted From Self-Built Home After Barricading Himself Inside

ALAMO (CBS 5) - The number of Bay Area homes in foreclosure is down nearly 40 percent from a year ago – but that's little consolation for an East Bay man forced to walk away from the hand-built home he's lived in for 18 years.

Wells Fargo has foreclosed on Franz Gorski. CBS 5 caught up with him as he made his last stand in the garage of his Alamo home Wednesday. Sheriff's deputies were on their way to evict him.

Gorski barricaded himself inside the garage and set himself up with a mattress, food and water.

"There's something really wrong, and it's hard for me to understand how it could be happening here," said Gorski. "They force the economy to tank, and now they're going to take away my home? This doesn't make sense."

The great recession hit Gorski's construction business hard, but he was able to get by for a while. The money ran out two years ago and he was forced to stop making house payments.

He has been trying to get Wells Fargo to modify his loan ever since. The company issued the following statement:

"We worked with the family for more than two years in an effort to find a way for them to maintain homeownership. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach a modification option that would avoid foreclosure," said spokesperson Ruben Pulido.

Deputies arrived Wednesday with guns drawn. They warned Gorski that the SWAT team could be called in if he didn't leave the property. After a brief negotiation, he came out peacefully.

With a Wells Fargo employee looking on, deputies changed the lock on the home Gorski built with his own hands.

"I'm going to keep getting up, put one foot in front of the other, one pants leg on at a time, and go out and give it hell. But it's not the same," said Gorski.

The 51-year-old has gone from living in a 3,000 square-foot house to putting his possessions in storage and moving into a room at the home of his in-laws.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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