# Homeowner Says Crews Demolished Wrong House



## Bill Mattocks (Jun 13, 2009)

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/19715994/detail.html

Wrecking crew says they were given a description of the house and GPS coordinates, but not an address.  So they found the house they thought looked right and demolished it.  House was full of heirlooms and had been built by the owner's father, by hand.  He was raised in it - now it is in a dumpster, along with their possessions.


----------



## Bob Hubbard (Jun 13, 2009)

sheesh


----------



## jks9199 (Jun 13, 2009)

Careless...

Sloppy beyond belief on the part of the demo company!

But I bet I know someone who's gonna own a demo company!


----------



## Big Don (Jun 13, 2009)

My cousins, who all work construction, had shirts made a while back. The tagline:
Construction Worker, please speak slowly...


----------



## arnisador (Jun 13, 2009)

Another down-to-earth benefit of technology. Poor guy.


----------



## MA-Caver (Jun 13, 2009)

I... would be... soooo pissed off and out looking for blood. 

Good thing this sort of thing does happen to TY and the folks at Extreme Home Makeover! :lol:

Really a bad thing to have happened. Heirlooms are just that and irreplaceable in many many cases. Even a hefty litigation settlement won't cover the losses.


----------



## shesulsa (Jun 13, 2009)

Power box gone? That's a red flag right there.  Why didn't he go check it out??  Why didn't the neighbors on that street-that-bears-his-family's-name inform him of strange goings-on?

And GPS coordinates????  Is that even LEGAL????

I dunno, folks.  Something smells fishy here.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Jun 13, 2009)

shesulsa said:


> Power box gone? That's a red flag right there.  Why didn't he go check it out??  Why didn't the neighbors on that street-that-bears-his-family's-name inform him of strange goings-on?



Apparently, when the power box disappeared and some holes were punched in the walls, he thought it was vandalism - it didn't happen the same day the house was knocked down.

And apparently, his lawn service guy told him that the house was being knocked down, but he didn't get there quickly enough to stop it.

It isn't said, but it seems the guy wasn't living in the house at the time - I know how that is.  Stuff happens - you don't know about it until the next visit.  Neighbors don't tell anyone jack.


----------



## Carol (Jun 13, 2009)

I don't even know what my neighbors across the hall look like, let alone their names.   They are only 4 feet away but I never see them.


----------



## MA-Caver (Jun 14, 2009)

Carol Kaur said:


> I don't even know what my neighbors across the hall look like, let alone their names.   They are only 4 feet away but I never see them.


So a blood curling scream in the middle of the night coming from next door wouldn't bother you either huh?... :lol: (just kidding)


----------



## Big Don (Jun 14, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> So a blood curling scream in the middle of the night coming from next door wouldn't bother you either huh?... :lol: (just kidding)


Damn horror movie fans...


----------



## Big Don (Jun 14, 2009)

Back to the topic:
Measure Twice, Cut Once is something everyone who's worked construction has heard. Don't you think that verifying the address at least twice, when demoing a building would be a good idea?


----------



## Bruno@MT (Jun 14, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> Good thing this sort of thing does happen to TY and the folks at Extreme Home Makeover! :lol:



I hate that show. Sometimes I wonder if hey have to do the 'move the bus' take multiple times to get the right sob levels...

Anyway, I heard a couple of years ago that a UK home renovation program got sued.

They had cleaned up the house without the knowledge of the owner.
The owner kept his money in his mattress.
The tv crew gave him a new one.
The people af the landfill had a good day and incinerated the mattress before the tv crew found out why the owner got a heart attack on the spot...


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Jun 14, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> So a blood curling scream in the middle of the night coming from next door wouldn't bother you either huh?... :lol: (just kidding)



Try living in Detroit.  My neighbors do that all the time.  They chase each other up and down the hallway and have fistfights at 3 a.m.  They smoke stinking blunts in the hallway and scream bloody murder at all hours.  They break into cars in the parking lot and throw furniture out their own windows into the courtyard from time to time.  I stopped calling management or the police unless I actually hear a gunshot.  OK, I mean a gunshot in the hallway.  I hear gunshots all the time - I ignore them.


----------



## Tez3 (Jun 14, 2009)

Bruno@MT said:


> I hate that show. Sometimes I wonder if hey have to do the 'move the bus' take multiple times to get the right sob levels...
> 
> Anyway, I heard a couple of years ago that a UK home renovation program got sued.
> 
> ...


 

Oops?


----------



## Bruno@MT (Jun 14, 2009)

Tez3 said:


> Oops?



I think it was several hundred thousand pounds.
I'll never understand why some people hide that much money in their house. And in an unsecure location at that.


----------



## Big Don (Jun 14, 2009)

Bruno@MT said:


> I think it was several hundred thousand pounds.
> I'll never understand why some people hide that much money in their house. And in an unsecure location at that.


There was an old lady in Israel, last week, whose daughter, bought her a new mattress. The old lady said their was close to a MILLION in the old one.


----------



## Tames D (Jun 14, 2009)

Big Don said:


> Back to the topic:
> Measure Twice, Cut Once is something everyone who's worked construction has heard.


 
The short time I woked in construction as a teenager I heard the old guys yell out **** IT, NAIL IT!!! alot. I would say "hey Bruce this doesn't look right, doesn't look safe". Bruce would yell out **** IT, NAIL IT!!!

This demo job sounds like one of those **** IT, NAIL IT moments.


----------



## Bruno@MT (Jun 15, 2009)

Big Don said:


> There was an old lady in Israel, last week, whose daughter, bought her a new mattress. The old lady said their was close to a MILLION in the old one.



Wow.
Ouch.


----------



## Big Don (Jun 15, 2009)

QUI-GON said:


> The short time I woked in construction as a teenager I heard the old guys yell out **** IT, NAIL IT!!! alot. I would say "hey Bruce this doesn't look right, doesn't look safe". Bruce would yell out **** IT, NAIL IT!!!
> 
> This demo job sounds like one of those **** IT, NAIL IT moments.


I think I've said that...


----------



## Samuraifan (Jun 16, 2009)

How could you posibily make such a mistake? If you were going to demolish a house, something as irreplaceable as a house, wouldn't you check it? check it again? verify? and check it again? Sometimes "Opps" doesn't cut it.


----------



## arnisador (Jun 16, 2009)

Samuraifan said:


> How could you posibily make such a mistake? If you were going to demolish a house, something as irreplaceable as a house, wouldn't you check it? check it again? verify? and check it again? Sometimes "Opps" doesn't cut it.



A year or two ago a Rhode Island hospital had surgeons perform brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain--_three separate times_ (on different patients).


----------



## Cryozombie (Jun 16, 2009)

arnisador said:


> A year or two ago a Rhode Island hospital had surgeons perform brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain--_three separate times_ (on different patients).



Yeah but I work in a Hospital, I find that totally believable.


----------



## tellner (Jun 22, 2009)

I believe the proper legal term for the contractor's defense is "Bend Over and Touch Your Toes". 

"We had some GPS coordinates" is not a defense. It's barely even an excuse.

Here's what will happen:

The homeowner's lawyers will sit down across the table from the contractor's lawyers and fold their hands.

The contractor's lawyers will straighten their papers.

The homeowner's lawyers will arch their eyebrows.

The contractor's lawyers will gesture nonchalantly at the contractor's insurance agent.

The contractor's insurance agent will write a figure in the air.

The homeowner's insurance agent will look meaningfully over his glasses at the contractor's insurance agent.

The contractor's insurance agent will write the figure down on paper and add an extra zero.

All parties will close briefcases, rise, bow and leave the room.


----------

