Posted on 05/09/2012 9:13:13 AM PDT by Kartographer
Two years ago today, Joe Del Rio was awakened to find city officials at the door of his lifelong home in East Austin, demanding entry. Before it was over, the Police Department's SWAT team and the Fire Department had been deployed, and Del Rio said he was detained and questioned for about 10 hours because of what officials called a multilevel bunker-like space under the house with suspicious and unusual materials.
After the city billed Del Rio in April for about $90,000 in repairs it said were critical to make the home on Canterbury Street safe, Del Rio sued the City of Austin last week for what his lawyers say was a heavy-handed and unconstitutional seizure of his property without compensation.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Thanks to the pics in post #8, I withdraw my statements.
Over-stimulated & under resourced.....(homeowner....not me!)
I think I might be tempted to throw a handful of birdseed under the guys window on the occasional evening.
So what? Here in Texas he could have a 1,000 guns all loaded and none registered (all acquired from private sellers) and still be within the law. I actually feel sorry for him having only a dozen or so.
Wow! Very nice.
For later.
Del Rio inherits the house, with a 50s or 60s era "bomb shelter." He expands on it some (before the age of required permits for storage sheds, doghouses, birdfeeders and rain gauges, and restrictions even on using collected rainwater for your plants), puts in air conditioning, and buys some legal firearms during that time. Hey, it's not that great a neighborhood...
Someone tells the Po-leece that he's got "a bunker, and guns, and suspicious barrels" and APD calls out the SWAT team, and the Bomb Squad, and a Central Command Post, and the Fire Department, and, finally, the code-enforcers (got to have some probably cause, ya know). "Hey, this could be bigger than Waco!"
One dynamic entry later, they realize that they've got a 72-year-old law abiding citizen, retired Air Force Reservist and former City of Austin employee, a harmless hole in the ground, legal guns, empty barrels, and lots of egg on their collective face.
From there on out, it's pure police-state CYA.
"The building's going to cave in tomorrow! Fill his basement with four or five truckloads of concrete!" (Er, 'scuse me, uh, it hasn't fallen in yet, after all these years -- what's the rush?)
"Old car batteries present a hazard! Build a $10,000 double chain-link fence and put scary signs on it!"
"Don't forget to cut off the electricity and water and evict him, then send the guy a bill for the whole screw-up and dare him to sue us."
I'm an ex-cop, and generally "pro-police," but you only have to be on-scene at an everyday automobile accident investigation here to see that APD is "us versus them" on way too many steroids. We're all guilty until proven innocent, and then just suspicious...
An attempt to reduce the property tax assessment perhaps?
I don’t see where he did anything wrong. He even hired a structural engineer to verify if a retaining wall design was required and the PE didn’t think the house structure was unsound.
Only thing abnormal was the owner had been a security guard for the Austin City Council and had retired from that job.
It appears the structure was built directly beneath his house and not directly under the foundation stemwalls or their surcharge.
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