MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) – Jennifer Pulliam knows who mistakenly demolished her house in Alabama earlier this year. But while the mystery is solved, the legal battle is just beginning.
Over a weekend in January, someone came onto Pulliam’s property next to the Mobile Fairgrounds and tore down a home that had been in her family since the 1960s.
“I moved here when I was approximately 10 years old. This is my grandparent’s old homeplace. They bought it in 1965 and it’s been in our family ever since,” she said.
Pulliam, who lives and works in Leaksville, Mississippi, eventually got word about the demolition through a family member.
“They didn’t know that I was unaware of it until they saw the news story and then they contacted me,” she said.
“I cried for two days,” Pulliam added. “I was devastated.”
Other family members saw the story, which aired on NewsNation affiliate WKRG, and contacted Pulliam with the name of a company seen on the property that weekend in January.
Pulliam said a Mobile Police investigator contacted the construction company and the owner confessed to demolishing the house, saying it was a mistake.
“I was not happy because they said they could not arrest them because there was no malicious intent … I would just have to sue them in civil court,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam, who had not publicly named the company on the advice of her attorney, said she is planning to file a lawsuit. She also claimed that the company’s owners have not contacted her to offer an apology — or anything else.
As for what kind of damages she hopes to recover, Pulliam didn’t immediately have an amount in mind.
“I’m not sure what they will come up with or how they will come up with it — that house to me is priceless.”