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 ...
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.
Forgive me for not being a lawyer / economist, but what would happen if the contractor declared bankruptcy, & did it FAST...would that be an "easy-out" for them to not have to pay the wrongs homeowners?
Makes one wonder if this was the first time. Or the tenth.
“How could this happen to a private business? “
Just a hidden cost of hiring illegals. Probably no one on the crew could read.
Yes but it's still a "bang your head on the wall" situation.
They are probably insured. I know that around here, you have to insure if you are a tree service so I would bet they do too.
‘It’s 50ft as of 1994, and requires 3 satellites to get a fix.”
Its not as much of a factor today. The bigger issue is the mapping database used by the GPS device.
ahhhhhhhhhhhh...thank you very much! :-)
This isn’t political and all the man’s possessions were in the house. I don’t find humor in the situation..........noob.
I wasn’t aware I needed to check with you first. And since you resorted to name calling, Why don’t you serve yourself up with a little mint jelly...” Lamp Chop”.
I find no humor in either instance.
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