Ames residents gathered along Mortensen Road Tuesday to collect the contents of an emptied apartment.

Bob Bochik, his wife and his daughter were evicted from their apartment at Celtic Manner Apartments, 1300 Coconino Road, said Ev Cochrane of Ev Cochrane and Associates, owner of the property.

Cochrane said the eviction process was prompted when the family didn’t pay rent for four months.

“It was all a matter of court procedure,” he said. “He knew sometime last week that this was going to come to a head this morning at 9 a.m. He was in my office at 8:15 [a.m.], and then disappeared.”

Cochrane said a judge told Bochik he would have to remove possessions from the apartment. All of the items found in the apartment were moved off Celtic Manor property onto the 1300 block of Mortensen Road, where a group of people gathered to pick them up and take them home.

“They’re taking all their crap out, and they’re setting it on the side of the road,” said David Emerson, freshman in pre-business. “It’s mass chaos.”

Pickup trucks were emptying the contents of the family’s apartment, and people were rummaging through the mounds of belongings, said Josh Goedken, senior in management.

“There’s prom dresses all over. There’s family photo albums all over,” Goedken said. “It’s a person’s belongings and it’s all spread out along Mortensen and there’s people scrummaging through it – all through the mud.”

“I feel kind of bad [they] lost their personal stuff,” said Bradley Holtan, junior in forestry, who went home with a leather recliner and a Shop Vac, as well as other “odds and ends.”

Some were there to collect the belongings, while others gathered to watch. Some students chose to help the family. Tyson Conrad, senior in elementary education, and Katie Downs, junior in sociology, collected photo albums found among the belongings. They said they plan to return them.

“We’ve already talked to the Ames Police and they’re going to give [Bochik] our information,” Downs said. “I feel awful. This is horrible.”

Downs said she saw a man walk away with three computers – two desktops and one laptop with a printer – as well as books and other items.

“It’s somebody’s memories,” Conrad said. “[They’re] already going through a tough enough time already.”

Staci Meyer, a tenant of Celtic Manor, was worried about the amount of trash that could be left in front of the complex, and called the city of Ames to voice her complaint.

“I’m concerned with how long that’s going to be standing out there in front of our property,” said Meyer, senior in finance. “It definitely could be handled in a more appropriate way.”

Cochrane said he followed the appropriate steps in the eviction. He said when tenants do not pay rent, the landlord must file a three-day notice, which gives the tenants three days to pay rent to avoid going to court. If tenants still refuse to pay, they will be forced to attend a hearing where the landlord must prove the tenant didn’t pay rent, Cochrane said. A judge then determines whether the tenant must pay or move out.

“[Bochik] kept making promises to pay, and just never paid,” Cochrane said. “[The family] went to court on two different occasions and were told they would have to move.”

Cochrane said Bochik was evicted from his last residence in September and was surprised he reacted the way he did when he was given the ultimatum.

“I gave him a garage to move his stuff to [to] prevent it from being moved into the snow,” he said.

“It’s pretty amazing that this guy just ignored this situation and just left his family’s belongings out in the snow.”