Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

If you were paying rent as agreed, you had a lease, except it was not in writing. You may have had a mont-to-month lease or an oral lease for a year; can't tell. Assuming a month-to-month lease, if you pay on the 1st, you should have been given written notice on the 1st, and if you didn't move by the 1st of the following month, you should have been evicted by court process. Throwing your stuff out without that kind of notice and process is called a forcible entry and detainer and is illegal in Illinois. UNFORTUNATELY you now will have to sue them and prove what everything was worth, unless perhaps you had some kind of insurance that could cover you. What a terrible thing to do. My only question is where were you when they set everything outside, and did they also lock you out? If you were around why didn't you try to bring things back in or confront them or call the police? And if they didn't lock you out you could have gone back in the house, no?