That was the day the single mom of three children was evicted from her place at Hathaway Village Apartments in north St. Louis County.

It was also the last day she saw any of her stuff. That’s because the landlord, Baumann Property Co., wouldn’t let her retrieve any of her belongings. Not the day she got evicted, or the next day, or the day after that. Or when she showed up with a U-Haul truck and a county police officer, or when her daughter begged the manager to let her retrieve her high school diploma.

Wingo last week went through her itinerary, piece by painful piece, as her lawsuit against Baumann, owned by Herbert J. Baumann, made its way to a jury. She told them about her socks and underwear, and her furniture and televisions. She described her son’s PlayStation and her pots and pans. She told them about her kids’ school and church clothes. She told them about her mop, the one with a built-in device to rinse it.

“I loved that mop,” she said.

Wingo told them about her Bible, handed down through three generations, and the Coach purse her mom gave her when she graduated from high school. She told them about her mom’s leather jacket from Sumner High School, circa 1967. She told them of the 100-year-old mink coat that belonged to her grandmother.

These heirlooms had been passed down to Wingo, and she planned to pass them down to her children. But now they were gone because she had fallen one month behind on rent. And the landlord had decreed that he now owned the items.

“Regina lost everything that she owned,” attorney Richard Voytas told the jurors. “She lost every piece of clothing except for what she wore to work that day. … There was no fire, no flood, no natural disaster. Everything that Regina owed was just inches from her, behind a locked door.”

For three and a half years, Baumann, who has managed dozens of low-income apartment complexes in St. Louis County, fought the lawsuit. He told Wingo and the court that landlords own a renter’s possessions the moment the locks are changed during an eviction, no matter the circumstances. He argued that was true even if it’s not spelled out in a lease or an eviction order — and even if putting the property on a curb would be easier than putting it in a dumpster. That’s where some of Wingo’s possessions ended up: in a dumpster on the grounds of the apartment complex. The rest of her belongings, including the most expensive ones, were nowhere to be found.

On Thursday evening, the jury of nine women and three men put an end to that practice. They awarded Wingo $86,000 in damages, agreeing with her that under Missouri law, Baumann (or his property manager) effectively stole property. The jury also awarded Wingo an additional $85,000 in punitive damages. Under the rules of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, Baumann will also have to pay Voytas’ attorney fees.

“I’m vindicated,” Wingo said in the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Kristine Kerr after the trial, relieved that the long battle was over.

She’ll never get her stuff back, but her case should send a message to other landlords in St. Louis. Even in cases where eviction is necessary, “a rent and possession judgment doesn’t give the landlord the right to simply exercise full domain and control over personal property,” Voytas said.

The irony of Wingo’s case is that with better timing — missing a rent payment just a few months later — she never would have been evicted. That’s because during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a moratorium on evictions. That would have given Wingo, who is a clerk in the county health department, time to catch up. That’s what she was trying to do at the time Baumann evicted her. Even while her lawsuit was pending, Wingo paid Baumann what she owed in back rent.

For some landlords, the pandemic was a windfall. Renters had access to rental aid from the federal government, which was passed directly to landlords. And property management firms had access to operating capital through Paycheck Protection Program loans. In April 2020, just a month after Wingo sued, Baumann’s company received a $395,400 PPP loan, nearly all of which was forgiven by the government.

Now some of that money will go to Wingo to make up for the loss of possessions that will never be retrieved.

“She is a hard-working mom who didn’t deserve what happened to her,” Voytas told me after the trial.

He presented evidence in court that Baumann’s property manager, Ebony Johnson, entered Wingo’s apartment with friends and took some of the more expensive items before the sheriff’s office changed the locks. That’s why the landlord wouldn’t let Wingo back in to get her things, Voytas argued. Johnson denied stealing any items.

“My client had every right to take possession of that property,” Baumann’s attorney, Carolyn Geoghegan, argued in court.

That was never the issue, Voytas said in response. Eviction is one thing. Keeping the possessions is another.

“I’m grateful the jury gave her a verdict,” Voytas said of Wingo. “Hopefully it sends a message to other landlords in St. Louis. You can’t just take people’s stuff.”