DETROIT (WXYZ) — "They shouldn't have come and destroyed our neighborhood," said Marian Mackall about the three people Detroit police busted for allegedly stealing bricks off the vacant house next to the home she's lived in for over 40 years.
"Look, look, look at how bad that house looks next to my house," an exasperated Mackall said. "And now I got to look at that."
Neighbors recently began to question the people who were chiseling countless bricks off of the house on Cloverlawn near Schoolcraft on Detroit's west side. The trio showed them paperwork, but things didn't add up.
Neighbors called Detroit police and Tuesday they busted three people in the act of picking apart the house. Stacks of bricks, neatly wrapped for pickup, were in the driveway.
Mackall said the people also took glass blocks and metal parts off of the house and left a large gaping hole in one side of it that wasn't there before.
The property is owned by the Detroit Land Bank. It was not slated for demolition.
A 60-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday along with two men, ages 46 and 57.
"They're not saying too much of anything. Just one lie after the other," said Detroit Police Sergeant Marcellus Ball, who told 7 Action News that the police department's special unit that investigates blight and illegal dumping will be typing up warrant requests on the suspects.
The three showed up in a pickup truck that has "Brick World" written on the side along with "Reclaimed Brick" and a US DOT number that investigators could not find record of with the United States Department of Transportation.
The vehicle is registered to a 55-year-old woman who also lives on Detroit's west side. 7 Action News has attempted to locate her.
Marian Mackall is now left living with a house that is surely beyond salvaging.
"They're wrong in doing it," she said. "They're destroying their own city."
