Home Destroyed
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Updated: 9:07 PM Sep 25, 2008
Home Destroyed
Picture this. You leave your home, headed for work one morning, only to return that evening and find your home destroyed. That's what happened to a Panama City woman.
Posted: 8:12 PM Sep 25, 2008
Reporter: Kristina Hamilton
Email Address: kristina.hamilton@wjhg.com

Home Destroyed by Mistake
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Picture this. You leave your home, headed for work one morning, only to return that evening and find your home destroyed. That's what happened to a Panama City woman, after a local construction company mistakenly demolished her mobile home.

The company is admitting the mistake, but refusing to help the woman.

Wednesday afternoon, Angela Pate's mother, Jimmie Alexander, came home to find this bulldozer destroying 36 years of memories.

Angela Pate, Jimmie Alexander's daughter, says, “We grew up playing in this park over here, and she always wanted to live here. This felt like like her home here, and as bad as the neighborhood got, she never wanted to leave."

When her daughter confronted Sike's Construction they immediately admitted the mistake.

"Well the driver of the excavator over there says this isn't the first time this has happened, but they're notorious for going to lots and clearing out lots.

But Pate says the company agreed to halt the job until the next day. They were giving the family a chance to gather their items from this rubble.

But when Pate and her sister returned the next morning, they found an empty lot.

"They had already destroyed it. Everything was taken to a dumpster and their not telling us where they've taken it to," says Pate.

According to Panama City Police, the entire trailer park had been purchased by a new property owner back in June.
The new owner told the police he thought it was abandoned.

"No clothes, no pictures, nothing, none of her personal things."

But Pate says the careless mistake cost her mother a home and the whole family years of pictures and memories.

NewsChannel 7 contacted Sike's Construction several times, but they declined to comment.

Panama City Police are conducting a criminal investigation.


Latest Comments

Posted by: Debbie Location: Marianna on Sep 29, 2008 at 08:32 AM

My husband and I think there is something fishy on this story. There's gotta be more to this. They should have realized it or maybe tried to contact the people in the evening before desroying a home. Or even loked to see if anyone was livivng there. And these people should have been able to get their stuff from the rubble or told them where their stuff is. If I were them I'd be suing the constuction company. I hope they do.
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