A Tampa Bay teacher has sued the 511,000-member, $4.9 billion Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union in Florida court, charging the CU repossessed her car after she fell behind on her mortgage payments.

Angela DiNapoli said she was never late on her car payments to the Tampa-based CU but that she returned from a short vacation to find her car gone.  Initially she called the police, only to find out later that credit union had repossessed the car.

She also said, in a press release, that she had never been notified that she had missed a car payment or that the car could be repossessed. Her attorney, Charles Gallagher of St. Petersburg, also said the CU had no “cross collateral” clause in the mortgage contract which would let it repossess the car in the event she fell behind on mortgage payments.

“This is a new tactic for lenders,” Gallagher said. “There is absolutely no legal justification for taking her car, when she was up to date on her payments.”

He said Suncoast Schools later filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Napoli and that she filed her own suit. Suncoast Schools acknowledged the litigation but has not yet commented on it.