Contractor Wrecks Apartment Complex After Allegedly Not Getting Paid For Work

Every independent contractor knows the frustration of not being paid in a timely manner, but one builder decided to take matters into his own hands in a brand new kind of way.

Featured Video
Hide

The contractor hopped into an excavator and started smashing balconies on a newly constructed apartment building in Blumberg, Germany, last week. No one was inside the building at the time, and no injuries have been reported, but the man kept on vandalizing the property until the excavator’s hydraulic hose broke — at which point onlookers say he hopped into his car and drove away.

Advertisement
Hide

Allemagne : Un entrepreneur en construction de la Forêt-Noire a délibérément endommagé un nouveau complexe résidentiel d’environ 30 appartements avec une excavatrice à Blumberg (Bade-Wurtemberg). Les dégâts s’élèvent à environ un demi-million d’euros. pic.twitter.com/6ECGtPd8r3

— Rebecca Rambar (@RebeccaRambar) July 30, 2021

All said and done, the disgruntled worker managed to cause roughly $600,000 in damage to the building, a relatively small percentage of the $5.8 million he claims the developer owes him for the work he did on it.

Still, the damage was fairly extensive for the short time he was able to spend causing it.

According to The Sun, police were concerned the contractor’s wrecking spree may have damaged gas containers being housed in one part of the building and had to temporarily shut down the area as a precaution.

People online have largely praised the builder’s aggressive response to allegedly not being paid, as frustrations with corporations cutting every corner they can to pad their bottom line are certainly nothing new.

Advertisement
Hide

This is the perfect response and the best use of Twitter I’ve seen all day!

— Liambayit (@Liambayit) July 31, 2021

I absolutely can. If you don’t pay your workers, why should you profit off their labour?

— Petter (@Petterwass) July 31, 2021

He didn’t cause damage, he merely restored the building to the condition it was in at the time he stopped being paid

— Nurse D still can’t follow back (@Progressive_RN) July 31, 2021

This is simply the construction version of a barista throwing out your coffee because you refuse to pay for it. https://t.co/HL3UGC6Mwr

— Sam Melnick (@sam_bamalam) July 31, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

The contractor did eventually turn himself into the police, though clearly a lot of folks don’t think he should be held liable for refusing to let a company profit off of work he did without receiving full payment.

And maybe any companies utilizing contractors will think twice about screwing them over after seeing just how messy that can get — in the construction world, anyway.

Share this article

*First Published: August 2, 2021, 6:22 am