Foreclosure funds used to buy Halgren home

According to court records, the city got a judge’s OK to foreclose on the home, then bought it Dec. 9 at an advertised public auction at which it was the only bidder.

To her knowledge, no appraisal was done on Ronald Halgren’s home at 812 Ave. A before the city bought it, City Administrator Robbin Blackert said.

Nor did the city have any long-term plans for the property, which it bought “in order to control the property so it could be cleaned up,” she said.

In fact, the city bought it without fully knowing the condition of the home, and without any city official going inside, she said.

Whatever the value of the house was, it has since been damaged beyond repair by a fire Monday morning that local officials deemed suspicious.

Neighbors have said they saw Halgren at the home earlier that day; that night he was arrested in Sycamore and remained in DeKalb County Jail Wednesday night on unrelated felony gun charges. His bail is set at $5,000; he has a hearing July 26 and is being represented by a public defender.

Friday, the day the city got the deed to the home, Halgren was given 3 days to leave the premises. The fire started a few minutes before city workers were to board it up.

Results of the state fire marshal’s investigation will be given to the state’s attorney’s office, which will determine what charges, if any, the 70-year-old may face.

Of the $29,500, Halgren was paid $15,000, a homestead exemption required by the state foreclosure law, Blackert said.

“The rest of that ... that was our lien on the house,” she said. “That’s how it got up to that amount.”

The city always has money in its public property budget to buy homes on which it has liens, Blackert said.

“If they come into foreclosure, then we’re able to take control of the property,” she said. “This was a little bit different, because a lot of those are abandoned homes. This was the only home that the city had ever taken that actually had someone living in it at the time.”