The action caused horror all over Germany, but also understanding: A building contractor demolished balconies he had built himself with an excavator – probably because of unpaid bills. What made him do it?
The case had got through the media: A building contractor from Blumberg in the Black Forest had chopped off the balconies of a newly built apartment building with an excavator – he had previously built them himself with his team. The reason he gave was that the client had not paid the bills – according to his statements, an extremely impressive sum of around 2.5 million euros. He acted “out of sheer desperation,” the man told the Swiss newspaper “Blick”. “It was a cry for help. I couldn’t help it.”
Because he had to pay his running costs: suppliers, employees and taxes had to be paid after all. If he had kept the construction going, further costs would have been incurred, according to the SWR. The building contractor is said to have urged the builders again and again to pay the outstanding bills. But the property development company put him off and finally put him off by saying that the dispute could be resolved in court. At this point the man “saw red,” he reports. “I got into the excavator and destroyed what I built myself.”
The man “saw red” and rented an excavator
He rented the excavator especially for the revenge campaign. In the meantime, he is sorry for the way he acted – even if less for the clients than for the tenants, who were actually supposed to be moving into the building and who, of course, had no inkling of the quarrel behind the scenes. “Of course, what I did was wrong,” said the entrepreneur. “I especially want to apologize to the tenants who are suffering from this.” An apology is probably not enough – the man could even face a prison sentence.
By the way, the builders reject the allegations that bills were not paid. The man can only laugh tiredly about this: “Then why should I have done something like that? Rent an excavator and destroy the house when everything is supposedly all right?” He asks.
Swell: ,
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
