The City of Hobart, Indiana, is suing a local restaurant owner after learning he breached a mortgage agreement for the purchase of the old Hobart Police Department building in the city’s downtown area (that’s downtown Hobart on the left), according to The Times of Northwest Indiana.
It’s a complicated story that is part of The Times’ larger investigation of corruption in Lake County’s tax sale process (see editorial below). It caught our eye for one reason. The city learned it was being cheated by reading notices published by Lake County, Indiana in a local newspaper. Here’s how the Times put it:
“(Heather McCarthy, an attorney representing Hobart in the case) said the city recently learned through a newspaper notice that the restaurant, 200 Main St., was listed as eligible for auction at the county’s tax sale, meaning Gutierrez was not paying his property taxes as required. That was one of several red flags, she said.
“It really concerned us because we were under the assumption the taxes were being paid, and they weren’t. When we saw the tax sale listing, it was quite shocking to see that particular property on there,” she said.