A woman is 'furious' and in 'shock' after her house was demolished by mistake

• While on vacation, Susan Hodgson's neighbor called to say her house was being torn down.
• After checking the permit, an employee admitted they had the wrong address.

A woman is mulling over the next steps after a company mistakenly demolished her home in southwest Atlanta.

Susan Hodgson told The Associated Press that she found a pile of rubble in place of what used to be her family property when she returned from vacation last month.

"I am furious," she said. "I keep waking up thinking, 'Is this all a joke or something?' I'm just in shock."

Hodgson said a neighbor called while she was away and asked if someone had been hired to tear down the vacant house.

"I said 'no,' and she said, 'Well, there's someone over here who just demolished the whole house and tore it all down,'" she said.

When the neighbor confronted the workers, Hodgson said they got nasty: "He told her to shut up and mind her own business."

She sent a family member over to see what was going on and asked to see a permit. When a person in charge at the site checked the permit, Hodgson said he admitted he was at the wrong address.

No one was living in the house when it was demolished.

"It's been boarded up about 15 years, and we keep it boarded, covered, grass cut, and the yard is clean," Hodgson said. "The taxes are paid and everything is up on it."

Hodgson said she's filed a police report and talked with lawyers but was "still in this process of figuring out what to do."

"We keep pressing in different directions to see if something is going to happen," she said.

To this day, she said the Atlanta-based company responsible, You Call It We Haul It LLC, has yet to contact her or offer any compensation for the mistake.

"How do people just go up and tear somebody's property down and then just drive off?" Hodgson said. "How can they think that's OK? I just wish he would come fix the problem that he caused."

In a statement to WAGA-TV, a representative for You Call It We Haul It said the company was investigating and working to resolve the mishap.

Hodgson is not the first Atlanta resident to face a demolition nightmare.

In March, the city tore down Everett Tripodis' southwest Atlanta home despite all notices and demolition documents naming a different address, WSB-TV reported. He's now facing a $68,000 bill as the city tries to foreclose on the property to cover the demolition costs.