When Tylisha Slaughter learned that the West Philadelphia rowhouse she rented was going to be auctioned off in a sheriff's sale, she sensed opportunity.
Slaughter, now 30, aimed to buy the home near Cobbs Creek Park on the cheap and restore it from the "slumlord"-like conditions she, her boyfriend, and her two young children had been living in.
But on the day of the sale, she said, she found herself up against an out-of-towner with lots of money to spend: Brandon "Dutch" Mendenhall.
