Is there a FB/FF Real Estate Story Behind the Montage Shooting?

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GavriloPrincip_IHB

GavriloPrincip_IHB

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<p><strong>From the LA Times story:</strong></p>

<p><em>The Parks, a Mission Viejo couple, had checked into a bungalow there in hopes of discussing a "business-type thing" that was vexing them, said their daughter, Christie Park, 23.</em></p>

<p><em>Police say Kevin and Joni Park paid for their bungalow in cash, checked in using false names and addresses, and carried a gun and a bag of ammunition. A law enforcement source involved in the investigation said Joni Park also had $7,000 in cash. </em></p>

<p><em>Christie Park said her parents, who worked in real estate, enjoyed staying at nice hotels. At the Montage, which has spectacular views of the Pacific ocean, bungalows run $2,200 a night.</em></p>

<p><strong>From the OC Register Story:</strong></p>

<p><em>Kevin Park, 49, and his wife, Joni Park, 48, of Mission Viejo, checked into the hotel Saturday night just before midnight, registering under false names and paying with cash, Laguna police Sgt. Jason Kravetz said.</em></p>

<p><em>The couple, who were involved in real estate, have three children, Kravetz said.</em></p>

<p><em>Police found no alcohol or drugs in the room but did find boxes of documents. Kravetz would not say what type of documents were found.</em></p>

<p><em>Fewell said Kevin Park was injured while working for the Postal Service 15 years ago and was living on disability and financial help from a relative.</em></p>

<p><strong>Ok, so we have an injured worker "living on disability and financial help from a relative," who is "in real estate." He and his wife "like to stay in nice hotels" and are staying in a $2,200/night hotel room, for which they paid cash, only 10 miles from their house. They are there to discuss a "business type thing" and have $7,000 in cash and boxes of documents. </strong></p>

<p><strong>I have no idea what is going on here, but it wouldn't surprise me if the "real estate" and "boxes of documents" facts eventually point to these two unfortunate people's problems being somehow related to the great crash.</strong> </p>
 
<p>I know we all like to poke fun at the people who have been sucked up into the RE game but let's not jump to conclusions. As far as I can tell this couple was not having financial troubles when it comes to their home or anything else in OC. It seems there may be more to the story and whether it is ethical/legal or not we do not know. Not that it wouldn't make a good story but I think it could be worded in a more curious way. By no means do I want to make you think that I am some sort of irvinehousingblog cop and from your previous posts I know you mean no ill will at all. </p>

<p>Maybe I am being extra sensitive with all the other craziness (VT) that has been going on but please remember that these are people too and as crazy as it may seem they most likely have family too. </p>
 
I actually posted the notes about this tragedy because I thought it could be an example (though extreme and bizzarre) of the human cost of the bubble bursting. There was no ill will or derision intended. On this blog it is usually open season on people who have been undone by their own greed, or who have simply taken out loans they didn't understand and cant afford. But I thought we should remember that behind every FB, there is probably a story of someone's life falling apart.





Nobody knows yet what happened in this case--though it is clearly very bizzarre and obviously won't be typical. There was another quote from their daughter that I didn't post, where she said that her parents had been caught up in "things they couldn't clear up legally and financially" She said her mother was at her wit's end and it "caused this madness." The disclosed facts at this time don't necessarily show that a bad real estate deal was the cause, but it might very well have pushed them over the edge.
 
<p>More details from the LA Times:</p>

<p><em>"They were just people that got pushed a little too far with things they couldn't clear up legally and financially," their 23-year-old daughter, Christie Park, said in an interview. "My mom was at her wit's end…. She was so frustrated that it just caused this madness."</em></p>

<p><em>The Parks lived in a modest red-roofed house in Mission Viejo, where neighbors described Joni Park as a volatile woman who favored flower muumuus and was preoccupied by class status. She told neighbors she came from money.</em></p>

<p><em>Nancy Senerchia, who lives down the street, said Joni Park frequently argued with waiters and store clerks, prompting Kevin to jump in to make peace. "She's a complainer," Senerchia said. "If she doesn't like something, she lets it be known." She said Joni Park seemed to feel that Mission Viejo was beneath her and wanted to move to Newport Beach.</em></p>
 
<p>More details from the OC Register:</p>

<p><em>The Parks were due in court Monday for a meeting about a civil lawsuit. Laguna Beach police are also investigating whether a visit by sheriff's deputies to the Parks' home Friday could be related to what happened less than 48 hours later. </em></p>

<p><em>Both licensed real estate professionals — he a 6-foot-1 broker, she a 5-foot-5 salesperson — the Parks owned two Mercedes-Benzes. Gardeners maintained their lush lawn and maids cleaned their two-story, 2,600-square-foot house.</em></p>

<p><em>Dennis Dunyon, a next-door neighbor, said he constantly argued with Joni Park about the appearance of his home.</em></p>

<p><em>The meeting with deputies Friday was requested by Joni Park, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. She said she "had some information" about an undisclosed case, he said. At about 10:30 a.m. Friday, two deputies rolled up to the Parks' home for what Amormino called an "informational" police call that was not criminal in nature. An online sheriff's log listed a call on Dardania Avenue as "Fraud Report."</em></p>
 
<p>Sounds more and more like this is related to the housing bubble. But man ... they are leaving 3 kids behind. This is a tragedy.</p>

<p>This is off-topic for these forums, but I wonder if the cops acted appropriately? Sounds like it from the LA Times article, but who knows.</p>

<p><em>Police arrived to find themselves in a standoff with the Parks, talking to the couple through an open sliding-glass door. Joni Park waved the gun wildly, pointing it at police even after they ordered her to drop it, an investigator said. Officers shot her and she dropped the gun, the investigator said, at which point her husband picked it up and aimed at police, who shot him also.





The wounded wife then grabbed the gun and again aimed at police, the investigator said, forcing them to fire on her a second time.</em></p>
 
It could be related to the bubble or some other shady business deal. I wonder if the story behind of it all will ever come out. All I know and it may not be 100% accurate is that they have no mortgages on their home and they don't own any other property in OC. Of course they did use false names to check into the Montage. According to public records they don't have any liens, judgements or back taxes for the last two years. Their DRE records are clean too. All that doesn't mean that housing wasn't involved but one would think if it were then something would show up in those records. I do feel sorry for their kids.
 
<p>More details from the LA Times:</p>

<p><em>Joni Park summoned sheriff's deputies to the couple's Mission Viejo home Friday to tell them the couple was set to inherit $1 million, according to an investigator who asked to remain anonymous because he wasn't authorized to speak about the investigation.</em></p>

<p><em>The money was apparently to come from the estate of Kevin Park's father, Oliver Park, who died March 29 at age 82.





Joni Park, 48, gave deputies the name of someone she said was trying to swindle the money from them and might even kill the couple over it, the investigator said.





"She believed that their life was in danger and that if anything happened, they wanted to name the suspect," he said.</em></p>

<p><em>Relatives said that a much smaller amount of cash was to go to the son and two daughters of a third brother, Michael D. Park, who died in 2001.





Michael D. Park's son, Michael K. Park, a 37-year-old Corona firefighter, complained bitterly in an interview that he and his siblings were left with "a few thousand dollars each" and that his mother had been cut out entirely.





Kevin and Joni Park, the 37-year-old Corona firefighter said, were "gold-digging, superficial, money-grubbing people…. For [Kevin Park's] whole life, he talked about wanting my grandfather's money."





The couple's deaths so soon after Oliver Park's death, Michael K. Park said, amounted to "poetic justice."





Michael K. Park scoffed at the notion that someone had threatened his aunt and uncle, with whom he had barely spoken in the last decade, save stilted greetings at his grandfather's funeral.





Michael K. Park's mother, 60-year-old Caroline Park of Whittier, said of Joni Park, "There's not one tear shed for her. Not in this home. I know that sounds crass and very cold. But you reap what you sow — and she has. Amen for that."</em></p>

<p><em>The couple owned a small real estate investment firm. Oliver Park, the family patriarch, owned properties that included a Balboa Island home and businesses with extensive real estate holdings.


</em></p>
 
<p>sordid. Doesn't sound like there was much love lost for the two.</p>

<p>what doesn't make sense is ... it was the couple that called the cops there, what gives with waving guns around at the people you called?! Now that is just plain dumb. </p>

<p>Through your efforts at alienating everyone in your family, you stand in line to inherit a chunk of change, and then lose your cool and judgement and start pointing weapons at COPS? Uhm, natural selection?! (oh, they already had kids .. never mind)</p>
 
<p>Skeptic says, "but I wonder if the cops acted appropriately? Sounds like it from the LA Times article, but who knows".</p>

<p>Come on...I have to take exception to this comment. What would you have them do? They appear to have been placed in an impossible situation. I guess you can figure out what my profession is.</p>

<p>Now....back to housing.</p>

<p> </p>
 
<p>if the couple was threatening the guests with a gun...then continued to point it at the cops... then i rather the cops take them down than to have a virginia tech at the montage. </p>
 
I would l just like to say these two idiots were jeopardizing the lives of many individuals, including their own, so they deserved what happened to them. Cops and Service men have the hardest jobs in America and the media and political pundits do nothing more than make it even more difficult.





People in America really need to start being responsible for their actions. I sometimes wish that more Americans from the Great Depression, WWI, and WWII were still alive. These people would give certain individuals in our society a good lashing right now!!!!
 
<p>Trooper and mk9,</p>

<p>Didn't mean to step on any toes. But I think it is still permissable (and beneficial) in the US to question if the cops acted appropriately. I'm not saying they did anything wrong here -- in fact, from what has been published so far it appears they did what was necessary -- but I am a "skeptic" by nature and prefer to wait until all the facts come out before passing judgment or taking sides.</p>

<p>But we are getting way off-topic. In the interest of bringing this thread back to housing, more details from the OC Register:</p>

<p><em>An Orange County sheriff's report taken two days before the Parks died showed the couple was gravely concerned about an impending financial "black cloud," Laguna Beach police Capt. Danell Adams said.</em></p>
 
<p>Oops looks like your insticts were right. The FBI is involved now. This market will get ya if you don't watch out</p>

<p>http://www.nbc4.tv/news/13247637/detail.html</p>
 
<p>sorry, this story is more clear about the possible real estate fraud</p>

<p>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070502-2132-ca-resortshooting.html</p>
 
Most likely they were on top of the world a year or two ago at the top of the market and actually believed they were sophisticated real estate "investors" There's lots of people out there with investment properties, ARM, and overextended mortgages that don't feel very smart anymore. They shouldn't quit their day jobs!
 
These people do not owe any money on any property that they own in OC. They have no liens, judgements or back taxes against them. Unless they bought under a fake name as they did when they checked in at the Montage. Although getting a mortgage with a fake name is a much more difficult process than a hotel room. I don't want to seem as if I am defending them as I have no idea what they did. All I know is the usual red flags are not there. I do think that something else will come about of all this but it will probably surprise us all.
 
<p>graphix,</p>

<p>they could have setup a shell (a partnership, etc) and used that name as the buyer. Take a look at pacific legacy real estate, they buy properties in trusts and you have no idea who the real owner is unless you get the underlying trust documents.</p>
 
There are lots more investment mechanisms that may get them into trouble without utilizing their own names. It's rare these days that investments of any kind are not owned by a joint venture LLC, S Corp, or a Limited partnership. That's just prudent business practice for the entire industry. Not to say that they were involved in something illegal, it's just tragic given they have 3 children they left behind that will most likely have to spend more money than they have to obtain a policy settlement from the insurance company. Life really is too short already!
 
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