Philip Williams: U.S. Navy Veteran Goes To Florida For Surgery, Returns To Find Town Had Torn Down His Home

Philip Williams returned home from a trip to Florida to find something shocking — there was no home there at all.

The 69-year-old U.S. Navy veteran needed to travel to Florida for a knee replacement, so he shut up his home on Long Island to spend half a year in Fort Lauderdale. But back in his home town of Hempstead, town officials decided his two-story home wasn’t fit for habitation and bulldozed it to the ground along with all the belongings inside.

Navy veteran sues town for demolishing house while he was in surgery https://t.co/8xtFO8qmX3 via @MailOnline

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“I’m angry and I’m upset. It’s just wrong on so many levels,” Williams told Associated Press. “My mortgage was up to date, my property taxes were up to date… everything was current and fine.”

Philip Williams had lived in the home since he was 6-months-old, and said it was filled with sentimental belongings including his late wife’s engagement ring and pictures of his six children as they were growing up. Philip also had a model train set that he was given as a child and a bicycle he had just purchased.

Williams said he is now living with a friend in Florida.

Neighbors have their own story. They said the home was in terrible shape and was becoming a blight on the community. Those complaints reached town officials, who sent inspectors and declared it a “dilapidated dwelling.”

“The house was in terrible condition for a long time,” next door neighbor Keylin Escobar said. “Nobody really lived in the house; the house was abandoned. Everyone who came over to visit, people always say, ‘What’s going on with this house?'”

Video taken by a local news station showed that the home was falling apart, with a roof in shambles and what appeared to be holes in the roof near the chimney. The home also had visible holes in the side and a picture from Google Maps showed a yard with long grass.

Another neighbor said that the town posted notices to Williams’ door, but he remained in Florida where he had a long recuperation after some complications arose. And town officials never bothered to contact Philip Williams, he claims.

The town said it did contact Williams, sending letters to his home and banks. But Williams said he never received the notices and that the letters went to banks where he never had accounts.

“The town basically took everything from me,” Williams said. “The town does not have a right to take all of my property, all of my possessions.”

Williams said he believes the town thought the home was going to foreclosure and abandoned, but he said that’s not the case. The home, which was built in the 1920s, was owned free and clear and Williams did not owe any back taxes.

“My mortgage was up to date, my property taxes were up to date…everything was current and fine,” he said, via the Mail Online.

The story was reminiscent of another anger-inducing incident from Florida. Last year, a couple of squatters began illegally living in a home owned by a deployed soldier. The case brought national attention, and eventually the couple left but not before making a giant mess.

“The head of a mannequin, a nasty pool, filth, and an ironic sign on cabinets — warning that if you don’t live here, stay out,” the news station 11 Alive reported.

Philip Williams plans to fight his situation as well, filing a claim that could lead to a lawsuit against the town and asking for public records of how the home was torn down without him knowing about it. He said he wants compensation both for the house and for all the belongings that were inside when it was torn down.

[Image via Google Maps]