Posted on 06/14/2009 11:56:26 AM PDT by Chet 99
June 12, 2009—
A Georgia homeowner whose cherished family home was mistakenly demolished said he wants to know how a contracted demolition crew could make such an egregious error.
The modest, three-bedroom house at 11 Byrd Trail in Carrollton was built by Al Byrd's father in 1950. Now it's a mangled pile of debris.
"It was disbelief," Byrd said of the moment he saw the remains of the house where he and his nine siblings were raised. "It was like a mirage."
An Austin-based realty company, Forestar Group Inc., had contracted the demolition of a vacant one-story house at 3050 Highway 16 South, about 150 yards from Byrd's house and on the opposite side of the road.
But Byrd, 64, said he was told by Larry Watts of Marietta, Ga.-based Southern Environmental Services that the crew that actually did the demolition had picked Byrd's house to destroy based on GPS coordinates.
But Forestar Chief Financial Officer Chris Nines told ABCNews.com that his company gave Southern Environmental Services color photos and an address to work from and that he has no idea how they allegedly got GPS coordinates.
"Certainly, we're not happy about it and feel bad for Mr. Byrd," Nines said.
Watts did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Brandon Hannah of North Georgia Container, the company subcontracted with Southern Environmental Services for the actual demolition, confirmed he was at the site, but declined to comment further.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The GPS slant is significant IMO.
OhmyGod!
Geez...do people have no common sense? Read the # on the mailbox and on the house, for starters.../duh
I think a Carroll County jury is gonna be quite generous in the end.
bttt
He probably used the public version of GPS and based it on the address and not the coordinates. Anyone that has gone beyond the beaten track knows its not all that accurate.
The demo company has a LOT of splainin to do.
I hope so. Someone should be accountable. There’s a price for stupidity.
Unreal that anyone would rely only on GPS for something like this without verifying the street address. Actually, it seems pretty stupid to even use GPS for locating a specific house to be dismantled. Numerous old fashioned ways to identify the correct house.
These people have to be the biggest bunch of idiots outside of the Democrat Underground.
I bet they vote Dem. ;-)
NO BET!
You would think that! They must not be the brightest bulbs... GPS is sometimes a block off!
Epic, epic fail.
I came home a couple of weeks ago and a large Black Locust tree in my front yard was...GONE.
The dumb ass company cut down the tree, when they were only supposed to prune it. Cut it to the ground.
Bastards.
And a knock on the door!!
And it seems it's not high enough, since so many can obviously afford it!
How could you mistake a lived-in home for one that's abandoned?
I wonder if the plaintiff’s lawyers are circling this guy’s house with contracts in hand?
I agree, but it would have been better had this happened 4 years ago at the top of the market as the house is worth significantly less in today’s market.
It seems there is no shortage of nitwits in this country. The demolition company should have a policy that they do not raze a house unless the property owner/customer meets them at the job site.
Um... they should plant another of equal value......or I’d be calling the local news to do a story on stupidity...
That building demolisher must be one of those folks who just love to have all the latest gadgets.
Even in 1994 GPS (civilian) was only off 50ft. Idiots
Or they can't read. Maybe there was a language barrier of some type. /sarc
That's right. For starters. For something like that, if I were the contractor, I'd want pictures of the property to be demolished and a client representative, if not the property owners themselves, to be on hand before the first ball hits the wall to point to the object and say, "Yes, that is the building on this property to be demolished!"
LOL!!!
If I were going to tear down a house, I would first check to see that the electric, gas, and water were turned off. It might also be a red flag if the supposedly vacant house was still filled with furniture, appliances, clothing, food in the fridge, and the like.
Idiots.
How could this happen to a private business?
I know of a family that went on vacation. While they were gone, the house next door was to be demolished. Can you guess what happened? I don’t know what the outcome of that was but there is now a small park where their house stood.
Show them no mercy in court.
What do you plan to do? I wouldn’t let them get away with it.
These guys weren't your normal everyday idiots.
From the article; that his company gave Southern Environmental Services color photos and an address to work from and that he has no idea how they allegedly got GPS coordinates.
Went to the article and the group that hired the contractor says they sent pics and a physical address to the crew. Looks like the contractor punched the address into his GPS and let the box do his thinking after that.
Back in the 70’s a crew came along and cut down one of our big pines. The lady across the street demanded it because of the needles in her gutters. There was nobody to take the case.
Yikes!
This demo crew must have been former SWAT team members. They tend to get the wrong address from time to time.
“Even in 1994 GPS (civilian) was only off 50ft. Idiots”
Thats for mapped areas, if this area isn’t mapped well he could be off a lot more.
“Hello. ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’? We have a special assignment for you...”
That's called a "full prune".
“GPS is triangulation. I was mapping SAM sites in the desert on land that hadn’t been mapped since 1927. 15 years ago BTW. “
There is a difference between civilian and government GPS. Mostly the civilian version has a built in limitation to the accuracy.
Most civilian GPS mapping devices attempt to convert the coordinates to an address using an internal database. If the database doesn’t have the address it will give you an approximate location. Coordinates are of little use to most people.
My wife was dealing with the people so I am going to let her handle it.
No matter what, the tree isn’t coming back. It was a big one. I just thank my lucky stars the incompetent ninnies didn’t bring it down on the roof of my house. I am trying to keep it in perspective.
Of course, it pales in comparison to the poor people in this story posted.
It's 50ft as of 1994, and requires 3 satellites to get a fix.
The house was furnished and full of heirlooms!
The demolition company should be sued into dust, and no one involved should ever work again.
Apparently it’s illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of mental retardation.
Alas I digress. :^) Two satellites and me will do it.
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