A Georgia man is none too happy that his memory-filled family home, lovingly hand built "brick by brick" by Pop, is now a scene of rubble-strewn desolation after a demolition firm used a GPS to identify its victim and moved in for the kill.

Al Byrd of Sandy Springs got a bit of a shock earlier this month when someone called to let him know the Carroll County house was no more. Byrd had lived there with his nine brothers and sisters, and the house still contained precious heirlooms including "mom’s dining room set … her hutch* with her dishes in there".

These Little House on the Prarie touches meant nothing to the Marietta wrecking outfit, apparently acting on the instructions of another unnamed Texas company, who flattened the building.

The carnage was witnessed by Byrd's cousin, who captured video images of "a bulldozer in the yard of the house with dumpsters loaded with rubble". Byrd confronted the destroyers, who said they had "paperwork".

He recounted: "I said, ‘Paperwork for what?’ and he said, ‘For the house, to demolish the house.’ I said, ‘I’m the owner of the house, I haven’t given anybody any authority to demolish this house.’

“I said, ‘What address did you have?’ and he said, ‘They sent me some GPS coordinates.’ I said, ‘Don’t you have an address?’ [and] he said, ‘Yes, my GPS coordinates led me right to this address here and this house was described.’”

Byrd's gardener had witnessed evidence of the impending apocalypse - in the form of a missing power box and "holes punched in the walls" - prior to the destruction, but these had been dismissed as vandalism.

A very upset Byrd, who reckons a house across the street was the intended target, thundered: “You can’t imagine. It’s just incredulous that something like this can happen and no one contact the owner."

Wsbtv.com has a sobering slideshow of lots and lots of rubble here. ®

Bootnote

*No, they didn't keep Mom caged like a rabbit. I gather a "hutch" is what we Blightyside might call a "dresser" - intended for the proud display of plates and such.