Saturday, June 13, 2009

When "Whoops - sorry!" won't do

There are times when "Whoops - sorry!" just won't do.

Man's House Mistakenly Destroyed
(June 10) -- Imagine driving up to a house you own only to find it's not there anymore. That's what happened to Al Byrd of Atlanta on Monday afternoon.

Byrd received a call from a neighbor on June 8 telling him that his childhood home in Carrollton, Ga., had been demolished. When Byrd arrived on the scene with a Carroll County Sheriff's deputy, he found the home, which he still owns, in ruins, the Times-Georgian reported.

“My dad built this house with his own hands in 1950,” Byrd said.

The company hired to inspect the house was apparently given only GPS coordinates for the home, not a street address. Byrd said he heard that a house across the road was the intended target for the demolition.

Though no one was living in the house when it was taken down, Byrd told the Georgian that it was full of family heirlooms, including his mother's china and the family Bible.

"This was more than just a house," Byrd told the Georgian. "This was a whole history."

Read the full story from the Times-Georgian.

Crush du Jour: Lance Lamar

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kind of puts your street repair problems into perspective doesn't it.

People don't realize that GPS signals are degraded by about 3 meters. But the demolition crew only had to verify via plat/lot maps and street addresses. I'd say there is one hell of a lawsuit over this one.

Steven said...

I wonder what they were supposed to be demolishing the other house for. You would think that there would have been outward signs that the man's house was not the intended demolition, i.e., home was still full of furniture and heirlooms, front porch nicely accented with fresh flowers.

Java said...

What a heartbreaking story!

Mistress Maddie said...

I couldn't imagine going back home to find my childhood home not there anymore! And I can't understand why they didn't at least empty the house first. To lose heirlooms and such.

Joy said...

OMG! That's horrible! All they had to do was have an address and check it. GPS - not enough! Their things cannot be replaced.