Dallas, TX
Dallas apartment evicts tenant, throws belongings in dumpster. But it was the wrong unit.
DALLAS – A Deep Ellum man says everything he and his daughter own was thrown in a dumpster after the management of his apartment building said they accidentally ordered maintenance to clean out his rental.
Turns out apartment management had the wrong unit number, and now that man says he’s out tens of thousands of dollars. But the building management argues he never should have been living there to begin with.
After Johnny Abney spent years building a life for himself and his 9-year-old daughter, everything they own is gone.
“Clothing items. All of my groceries. They cleared out my refrigerator full of groceries,” he said. “Right down to the shower curtain.”
The items weren’t stolen. They were thrown in the dumpster by order of the management at The Hamilton, the high-end midrise apartment building where Abney lived in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas.
“They came to my door and cleaned everything out from my clothes to my daughter’s clothes, toothbrush, bathing items, pretty much left me with nothing,” he said.
It’s all in a police report Abney filed when he returned home from work in late July to find his apartment door unlocked and the contents cleared out.
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According to the report’s narrative, a leasing agent on site said “there was a misunderstanding, and maintenance accidentally cleared out Abney’s unit” instead of the unit next door where a tenant was being evicted.
All of Abney’s belongings had been thrown in the dumpster hours earlier and had been picked over by other residents.
“Not only did they put my stuff out. They watched people take my property all day,” he said.
Property management offered to get what they could from the trash and return it to Abney’s unit. He says they even had that stained mattress professionally cleaned, but most of his and his daughter’s stuff was gone for good.
Much of what did make it back from the dumpster was damaged.
“They told me it was a mistake. They apologized,” Abney said. “They were overly apologetic. ‘Let us know if anything’s missing.’”
But that quickly took a turn.
Abney recorded a conversation he had with one of the leasing agents who was quick to point out that the apartment in which he and his daughter lived was leased by his ex-girlfriend who had since moved out of state.
Abney was subletting without permission. And even though receipts provided to FOX 4 by an attorney for The Hamilton show Abney paid the nearly $3,000 in rent each month, any direct discussion about making him whole was off the table.
“We are binded like by law. We cannot discuss anything with you or anybody who is not her lease,” the apartment manager said.
According to this lawsuit Abney has now filed against the property management company, they gave him 24 hours to fill out his own rental application or face eviction.
“I’ve already lost property,” he said. “Now you trying to kick me off the property with no resolve?”
The eviction notice was posted on his door 24 hours later.
Jason Freidman is Abney’s attorney. He says the issue of who was on the lease is irrelevant.
“The rent was paid in full. There was no reason to go into his apartment. There was no reason to throw anything away,” he said. “The apartment building didn’t know when they threw all of that stuff away who’s stuff it was, whether it was the person on the lease or his.”
Freidman adds Abney chose not to fill out the application or pay the fee required for one very simple reason.
“He chose not to because he wanted to resolve the situation with the property that you threw away before I decide if I’m going to stay in this building,” Freidman said.
An attorney for The Hamilton would not speak on camera but did communicate by phone and email. He said even if Abney did fill out the rental application, he would have been denied because he already violated the lease terms as an unauthorized occupant.
“With me losing all my property, that’s the last thing on my mind,” Abney said.
According to the lawsuit, The Hamilton also alleged there was counterfeit money pulled from Abney’s things. That was another reason they said he would not have been welcome to stay.
FOX 4 asked The Hamilton to provide a police report, photos or video or any evidence at all. They provided none.
Back at Abney’s, among the discarded pile of trashed school supplies with which his daughter was supposed to start the fifth grade, we found our own. The play money clearly marked as “copy” right next to what’s left of her bed.
FOX 4 sent a list of questions to The Hamilton via their attorney, which went unanswered. They would not sit down with us for an interview. They did say they asked Abney for a list of what was missing from his fridge to establish a value for reimbursement.
Abney says that never happened. He did move out days after we met with him. He and his daughter are temporarily staying with family.
At four times the size of Highland Park Village, there’s nothing small about the idea of turning around and tuning up Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.
As of Friday morning, Ray Washburne, president of HP Village Management, planned to have power washers cleaning the grounds of the shopping and office center built more than 100 years ago.
An affiliate of HP Village Management officially closed on the Kansas City property with 970,000 square feet of commercial space spread across 15 blocks on June 28.
Country Club Plaza’s notoriety in the real estate community is that it was one of the first planned suburban shopping centers to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.
In the Midwest, it has served as a destination for out-of-town and out-of-state shoppers, much like Highland Park Village has, through the years, according to Washburne.
The opportunity to purchase the aging property was first brought to Washburne when he was speaking at an Urban Land Institute conference last May. Someone from investment manager Nuveen, coincidentally the lender on Highland Park Village, asked him if he’d be interested in another big project.
More than $100 million was spent on the updates to Highland Park Village. Washburne said that much more than $100 million will be spent on the Missouri complex, with Nuveen remaining involved.
Given Country Club Plaza’s size, it’s been envisaged into separate districts with a contemporary fashion district, a food and beverage district, and a luxury and designer district.
It’s similar to the retail balance that’s been struck between Dallas’ Knox Street, with which an affiliate of HP Village Management has also been involved, and Highland Park Village, Washburne said.
Currently, there are Tiffany & Co. and Coach stores at Country Club Plaza, but Washburne said there have been conversations with a lot of luxury retailers.
“They’ve seen what we’ve done [with Highland Park Village], and that’s very important,” he said. “There’s a trust factor with the tenants as there is a trust factor that they come in and they’re going to be in with someone who’s taking a long-term approach. We’re not going to put lipstick on it, paint a few storefronts, put a couple tenants in and sell it.”
Washburne said the first priority is security.
“We spend four times as much on security in the Village than they do, and they’re four times the size we are,” said Washburne.
Kansas City, like the Dallas area, has been tapped as a site for FIFA World Cup games in 2026, including a quarterfinal.
It’s a milestone that makes improvements at Country Club Plaza all-the-more critical without forgoing a sense of place.
“The pixie dust on this stuff is really creating an authenticity and uniqueness to the center. What we did at the Village is lead with a food and beverage scene that’s local. Second, you also have to have a number of local retailers,” said Washburne.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Multiple Kansas City architects have been engaged to help with an updated master plan for the Edward Delk-design buildings. Baroque revival and Moorish revival styles were utilized to mimic the architecture of one of Kansas City’s sister cities, Seville, Spain.
Leasing efforts are being led by Stephen Summers, whose family co-owns HP Village Management.
The Dallas Mavericks have made their first move of free agency and it’s not the name some expected. While the Mavs have discussions with Klay Thompson and Derrick Jones Jr., they’ve decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on a 3&D wing.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Mavericks are signing New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Naji Marshall to a 3-year, $27 million deal. It was reported that Marshall could become a target for Dallas if they couldn’t come to agreements with Jones Jr., who remains a free agent. Marshall will fit into part of Dallas’ mid-level exception.
READ MORE: Dallas Mavericks Free Agent Target Plans To Sign With Orlando Magic
Marshall, a 26-year-old from Xavier, has spent all four years of his career with New Orleans. He averaged 7.1 PPG and 3.6 RPG as part of a deep Pelicans team and shot a career-high 38.7% from 3-point range. He has good size at 6’7″ and 220 pounds and offers defensive versatility.
Depending on the structure of his deal, Dallas will still have around $4 million left in their midlevel exception. It’s not certain if Derrick Jones Jr., who Nico Harrison called their priority 1A and 1B this offseason, would be willing to take a 1+1 deal worth the remaining of the exception to return. They’re also still working out a possible sign-and-trade to acquire Klay Thompson. If that falls through, they could work out a sign-and-trade for Marshall if they needed to.
Welcome to Dallas Naji Marshall. He should have an easier opportunity than ever to get his shot off getting open looks from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Signings cannot become official until July 6th.
READ MORE: Warriors’ Klay Thompson To Meet With Dallas Mavericks Among Other Teams In Free Agency
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