Demolition crew tears down wrong house, blames Google Maps

ROWLETT, Texas — A demolition company left two owners of a duplex in Rowlett, Texas without a home to repair.

Lindsay Diaz and Alan Cutter were waiting on insurance and a potential FEMA individual assistance declaration to determine what repairs to make to their tornado-damaged home.

The two own both sides of the duplex.

Diaz said Cutter's wife called her Tuesday afternoon and told her their complex was gone.

WFAA reported that the demolition company, Billy L. Nabors Demolition, was supposed to demolish a duplex a block away.

The company would not clarify it demolished the wrong home. A text from an employee shows a digital pin on the map points a block away to Cutter's and Diaz's house.

Records show that the company had a demolition permit for another duplex — one that was not Cutter's and Diaz's house.

George Gomez, CEO of the company, said the crew thought it tore down the right house until it realized its mistake, adding that it was "not a big deal."

"I think this is a huge deal," Rowlett City Manager Brian Funderburk said. "The homeowners were in the process of trying to figure out what it was going to take to repair their home, and now they're looking at rebuilding it instead. I think this is a very big deal."

Diaz filed a police report Wednesday so that the incident is documented. She is waiting to hear back from her insurance company about filing a claim.

"That's what their job is  — to wreck it in demo, and they really wrecked my life," Diaz said.

Diaz and her son took cover in a bathtub during a tornado December 26 that damaged their home.

"We would have been in the house by the end of the summer, Diaz told KERA. "And then all of the sudden it's like the tornado came through again, took everything."

Cox Media Group