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Crumbling house in Highland Park damages cars, woman says she's been calling for weeks
With every single bump she hears, Arika Smith expects to find the home crumbling next door to come all the way down. Now, FOX 2 has gotten the county to do something about it.
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Arika Smith has lived in her Highland Park home for 15 years and she's been watching the house next door crumble in front of her eyes. Earlier this week, any support left gave way and it landed on two cars.
Smith said the home has been crumbling to pieces and she's been watching it lean towards her fence and driveway. Then, earlier this week, it landed on both her car and her daughter's car.
"The other night it fell it crushed my car it crushed my daughter‘s car it’s the only transportation I have to get back-and-forth from the doctor," Smith said. "Every little bump by here (and) I’m running to the window to see has this fallen yet."
Her cars were trapped underneath it earlier this week and she had to call a company to get the vehicles pulled out and to get the bricks off of her driveway. But they're still falling!
Every morning, she pushes bricks off to the side and, every day for the past two weeks, Smith has been calling to get the home on Puritan near Woodward demolished.
"I am very frustrated this is an all day every day saying I’m in the house on the phone constantly calling numbers trying to get something and everybody saying it’s out of their hands at what point is someone going to take responsibility," Smith said.
We called the Wayne County Treasurer's Office after seeing a foreclosure notice on the rubble. The Treasurer's Office says they just foreclosed on the house - along with thousands of others.
After our phone calls, someone from the office went out and looked at the property. Once they saw the damage, they said they're speeding up the process and working with the Wayne County Land Bank to get it demolished as quickly as possible.
"Can you please just come clean it up? I’ll help! I’ll help! But please somebody do something," Smith said.