REO Horror Story: Definitely No Janet Leigh
Kerri Panchuk | 02.02.07

What do you get when you mix Janet Leigh, the Bates Motel, a shower curtain and nail-biting theme music? Two words: Hitchcock's best. The infamous shower scene in Psycho has been etched in the back of movie-goer minds since it first came out in 1960, and even though Gus Van Sant made a lofty attempt at a remake—it never really quite came close to the original.

Perchance you find yourself in a stranger's bathroom, you wouldn't be alone if you wondered what was behind the curtain. Tom Blanchard, a representative with Las Vegas-based REO Asset Services, had a similar reaction when he did a walk-through on a foreclosed home.purchased a less expensive home'" said Blanchard. "When you realize that the startup cost to purchase a home was less than the costs to rent an apartment, you can start to appreciate just how seductive the dream of homeownership became to several thousand home buyers every month for the past 24 to 36 months in Las Vegas." To add to the problem, many homeowners chose to refinance their homes, with inattention to laon-to-value percentages.

When walking into a dark bathroom, Blanchard peeled back the curtain. Only he didn't find a naked woman, screaming at the top of her lungs—it was the former homeowner hiding inside the bathtub with her 2-year-old child.

Needless to say, they were surprised to see Blanchard, and he learned firsthand why everyone hates horror movies that feature sudden surprises in the most unlikely of places.

“They were just standing there in their clothes, hoping that I would not catch them inside the house,” said Tom. “It was probably the one time in my career when I was truly caught off guard. I am sure they were not expecting me to pull back the shower curtain.”

It turns out the homeowner received her foreclosure notice but decided to stay in the home anyway. The family left peacefully when Tom found them, but this event has certainly made Blanchard more weary of closed shower curtains.