No, we're not advertising the next season of "Breaking Bad" – someone literally bought a house that was a former meth lab.
By Stephanie Sims
Imagine finding your dream home – then finding out that the home was used as a meth lab by its previous owners. No, this isn’t an idea for Breaking Bad to live on after its series finale in 2013, it happened to Jonathan Hankins.
Jonathan Hankins started a campaign on Change.org after learning that the home he had purchased from Freddie Mac was used as a clandestine meth lab by previous owners. Hankins says within days of moving in, he, his wife, and 2-year-old child developed symptoms ranging from mouth sores to nosebleeds just weeks after moving in.
Since he started the campaign, more than 190,000 people in all 50 states have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on housing lender Freddie Mac to test each home it sells for contamination with meth.
Are You Living in a Former Meth Lab?
Scarily, apparently this is a “nationwide issue,’ according to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. Meth lab remediation experts estimate that as many as 2.5 million homes across the United States may be contaminated with methamphetamine and its precursors and byproducts.
Hankins says he hopes to prevent others from suffering the same fate by bringing similar awareness to the dangers of meth contamination as there is around lead contamination.
“Now that almost 200,000 people have signed my Change.org petition, I’m hoping for justice for my family, but I also want to help make sure this doesn’t happen to others buying Freddie Mac homes,” added Hankins.
“Jonathan Hankins is taking a personal trauma and turning it into an opportunity for action for thousands of people across the country,” said William Winters, Senior Campaigner at Change.org. “His campaign is a stunning example of how awareness of an issue like methamphetamine contamination can spread quickly through sites like Change.org.”
To view or sign Hankins’ petition, visit http://www.change.org/methlabhome.
Good luck…. but I honestly doubt that the FreddieMac will do anything. I mean honestly. They could care less.. they just want to dump the properties and get whatever they can outta the property.
Aint that the truth?
I wonder if he used a Realtor? As a Realtor, it is pretty obvious when I show a foreclosure and it has signs of being a Meth Lab. There are tons of outlets in unusual places, usually extra deadbolts throughout the house and especially on the door to the room(s) they used to make and store it in. The best way to find out is to knock on a couple of the neighbors doors and ask the story behind the house. They are usually more than willing to tell you the horror stories of havin a Drug Dealer living in their neighborhood and what all had happened. I am very thankful I live in an area where this is situation even comes up. I laughed when they added that question to our Sellers Disclosure in Texas, because if the Homeowner was selling they would not admit this, and if it is a foreclosure they do not fill out a Sellers Disclosure! The testing from Fannie or Freddie will never happen.
Brad
I live in an area where it is not something that ever comes up.