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Chicago Property Owner Hit With Fifth Bogus Eviction Notice

Steve Miller

(CBS) -- An Avondale man's struggle with the bureaucracy is still an exercise in frustration, two months after WBBM first reported on the eviction orders he's received from a woman who doesn't own the property.

"To me this is not a joke at all.  It's a complete breakdown of the system here," says 31-year-old Phillip Keefe.

When WBBM's Steve Miller last checked in with him, Keefe had received four eviction notices.

Avondale Home Owner
Phillip Keefe (Steve Miller/WBBM)

This week he got a fifth notice -- served by the sheriff's office. It was once again filed by a woman who once lived in his apartment but has no claim on the property now.

"There's a woman who's allowed to harass me through the legal system, and instead of actively doing anything about it ... they're allowing her to continually go to the clerk's office and just add more and more paperwork to their system to tie up more and more cases," Keefe says.

"And it's more and more of my time at the courthouse."

The sheriff's office has tried to put a stop to the eviction notices before, and a spokeswoman now says, "We need to figure out a way to stop this and address the abuses that seem to be happening."

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