US: Woman on vacay returns to find rubble after company demolishes her house erroneously

When you are out on vacation, fear of getting you house demolished is right at the bottom of the mental list of worst things you dread can possibly happen to you. It is not even the last thing on your mind when all you want to do is sip Pina Colada (poison may vary) on pristine beaches of Bahamas (or some other place sure to make you forget your worldly, mortal worries.)

Susan Hodgson didn't get such a chance to unwind as her property came crashing down just because a demolition crew knocked down a wrong house.

Associated Press reported that Susan, a resident of Atlanta in the US, came back from her vacation to the horror of a property she owned being nothing more than just a pile of rubble. And it turned out the demolition company was supposed to knock down some other house, not Susan's.

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“I am furious,” Hodgson said. “I keep waking up thinking, ‘Is this all a joke or something?’ I’m just in shock.”

The report said that Susan was contacted by a neighbour when she was away to ask if she had hired anyone to tear down the vacant house.

“I said ‘no’ and she said, ‘Well, there’s someone over here who just demolished the whole house and tore it all down’,” Hodgson recalled.

When the neighbour confronted the demolition crew, they behaved rudely with her.

“He told her to shut up and mind her own business,” Hodgson said, as reported by AP.

She then sent a family member to check what on earth was happening. The family member asked the person in charge to produce permit for demolition. And that's when the in-charge realised that the demolition crew was at a wrong address. Yikes!

“It’s been boarded up about 15 years, and we keep it boarded, covered, grass cut, and the yard is clean,” she said. “The taxes are paid and everything is up on it.”

Hodgson has since filed a report with the police and is even exploring legal options.

“We’re still in this process of figuring out what to do,” she said. “We keep pressing in different directions to see if something is going to happen.”

AP reported that the company responsible for this spectacular mix-up is called 'You Call It We Haul It'. The company is reportedly still hasn't contacted Susan.

“It’s just hard to believe someone thinks they have the right to just come and tear something up and walk away from it and didn’t come back and say ‘I’m sorry. What do I need to do to fix this? It was an accident.’ They didn’t give me nothing.”

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