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Detroit woman claims someone is stealing bricks off her home
A Detroit senior citizen says she’s the victim of theft—and you won’t believe what these criminals are allegedly stealing. The homeowner says not once, but twice, thieves have allegedly stolen bricks from her porch, causing it to become unstable. The cost to repair the porch is in the thousands, and it’s money this senior says she doesn’t have.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit senior citizen says she’s the victim of theft, claiming people are stealing the bricks off her home.
What they're saying:
Homeowner Cheryl Perdue says not once, but twice, thieves have allegedly stolen bricks from her porch, causing it to become unstable. The cost to repair the porch is in the thousands, and it’s money she says she doesn’t have.
"With all this bang, bang, bang, my house was just shaking," she said. "I’m jumping up trying to figure out what’s going on, and by the time I get to the door, I see guys scattering. I guess they used some sort of a sledgehammer, but it really hurt me to my core because I’m wondering who would want to do something to someone’s home. And to describe the damage for us—it’s terrible. They took the bricks out so badly in front of the house and toward the side that it’s making the house lean. The porch is bulging out."
FOX 2 spoke with Detroit Chief of Home Repair & Neighborhood Services Rico Razo about the condition of Perdue’s home.
"Ms. Perdue—we actually provided a home repair grant in 2022. She received a brand-new roof, tuck-pointing, and chimney repair that exceeded $25,000, so we do have an internal policy: if residents receive previous grant funding, they have to wait a period before they can reapply for a grant," Razo said. "To the best of our ability, we work with our nonprofit partners, the Detroit Housing Network, to see if there’s anything out there she can apply for, so that’s what we will do with Ms. Perdue."
Dig deeper:
Perdue says she did contact police, but there’s not a lot of evidence in this case. Some criminals do steal bricks if they have a high resale value. Ms. Perdue says it’s unclear why her house was targeted, but as the city looks into services, if you would like to help Ms. Perdue.