A vacation is supposed to be a break from the stress of everyday life that helps you feel refreshed and better prepared to handle whatever comes your way. However, could you imagine hearing that your house was demolished while you were away? That’s exactly what happened to one woman who returned home from vacation to discover her house had been reduced to rubble.
Susan Hodgson, a homeowner in Atlanta, Georgia, was “left with a big ole mess” when she returned home from vacation to what she described as an “unforgivable accident.” Making matters worse, the unimaginable “mistake” was first brought to Hodgson’s attention while she was away. However, nothing could have prepared her for what she would find when she returned home.
While on vacation, Hodgson received a call from a concerned neighbor who asked if she had planned for a company to come and tear down a house she owned in southwest Atlanta. After the neighbor informed Hodgson of the situation, the homeowner was quick to let the neighbor know that she had not scheduled any sort of demolition at the residence.
“Well, there’s someone over here who just demolished the whole house and tore it all down,” the neighbor told Hodgson, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. Making matters worse, the neighbor revealed that she tried to stop the demolition company but was told to “shut up and mind her own business” by one of the people tearing down the house. However, they would soon wish they had listened to the “nosey neighbor” rather than getting nasty with her.
After hearing about the unfathomable situation, Hodgson sent a family member over to the property. The family member then asked the demolition team from the company “You Call It We Haul It” for a permit. When the individual in charge of the demolition complied, he was faced with a grim reality as he was forced to admit that they were at the wrong address.
“He said, ‘Well, I want to see a permit or something,’ and the guy pulled it out and said, ‘Oh I’m at the wrong address,’ and he just packs everything up and leaves, and the house is just (destroyed) down and gone,” Hodgson recalled. Even though the company admitted that they were at the wrong address, they failed to immediately contact Hodgson about how to proceed after they had leveled her house to the ground.
When Susan Hodgson eventually returned home from vacation, she found nothing more than a pile of rubble in place of what was previously a home that had been in her family for a very long time, The Blaze reported. Hodgson immediately went to the police and talked to lawyers, but the following month, the Associated Press disclosed that the case remained in limbo, which rightfully infuriated the homeowner.
“I am furious,” Hodgson said. “I keep waking up thinking, ‘Is this all a joke or something?’ I’m just in shock,” she added. “How do people just go up and tear somebody’s property down and then just drive off?” Hodgson asked rhetorically. “How can they think that’s OK? I just wish he would come [and] fix the problem that he caused,” she continued.
“I think he owes us an apology, and he needs to fix the problem. He needs to fix the problem,” Hodgson reiterated. “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.”
Sadly, Susan Hodgson said she was left with a mess where her home on Lakewood Avenue once stood. “It’s just a grumbled mess. The whole house is tumbled in and a big ole mess. He didn’t haul nothing off,” she explained. Although it doesn’t excuse what happened, thankfully, no one was living inside the residence at the time. “It’s been boarded up about 15 years, and we keep it boarded, covered, grass cut, and the yard is clean. The taxes are paid and everything is up on it,” Hodgson said.
Fox 5 reportedly reached out to the Atlanta-based company about the situation, and they said that they were working on a solution to the issue. But, how does one even begin to fix this? You can’t simply un-demolish a home that had been in a family for many years. I guess this is a good reminder to “Measure twice, cut once,” so to speak. In other words, take the time to double-check and ensure accuracy before taking any irreversible actions because some things can’t be undone.
