It was a winter to remember for us here in New England and it left behind an ugly reminder that one Hyde Park home owner can’t forget.
RC Carrington was afraid the massive stone wall around his front yard would never be the same.
“It was a straight wall – no damage or nothing until the snowstorm,” Carrington said.
The winter blasts this past February pounded our region including RC’s neighborhood.
He says the plows responsible or cleaning the streets after the first storm in early February dumped most of the snow right on his property covering his entire wall.
He didn’t realize there was a problem until after the next storm, when a public works supervisor came knocking on his door.
The damage had been buried until this second round of plowing revealed it.
The supervisor told RC they just noticed his wall was damaged.
“Whoever put the snow there did it”, the supervisor said.
RC told the supervisor “The city put the snow there, that’s who did it.””
A large section of RC’s wall was destroyed – about three thousand dollars in damages and he wanted the city of Boston to pay for it.
“I called the city and told them about it and they said to fill out a claim, which I did,” Carrington said.
RC says he also submitted photos of the damage as well as several estimates he received to get it fixed.
“Everything they asked me to do, you did everything you were supposed to do. That’s right.” Carrington said.
But Carrington says city officials eventually sent him a letter rejecting his claim because they say it wasn’t a city employee who caused the damage.
“I know damn well they did the damage, somebody did the damage from the city or whoever they hired, they did the damage,” said Carrington.
Up against a wall and with nowhere else to turn, Carrington decided to call Solve it 7.
We reached out to city officials and found out they hired a local company, American Sweeping in Dorchester for snow removal during the February storm.
Leaving no stone unturned, we also learned that the city puts GPS devices into the contracted vehicles to track their movement.
GPS printouts we obtained from the city of the date and time Carrington says his wall was damaged match the tracking data of an American Sweeping vehicle.
We took out findings to John Hogan, the general manager of American Sweeping – and showed him the GPS data.
“We’ve been in the business for over 25 years. We take care of our responsibility. If we do the damage we do the damage,” Hogan said.
American Sweeping agreed to pay to repair the damage to RC’s wall.
And a few weeks later, Carrington’s crumbled wall was back to the way it was before all the damage.
“I really appreciate Channel 7. If it wasn't for you guys, this would have never gotten done.” Carrington said.
Are you stuck between a rock and a hard place? Or being stonewalled in your quest for answers? Let us try and construct a solution – give us a call at 617-367-7777 or send us an email to solveit7@whdh.com.
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