Austin Steals Elderly Veteran’s House for Crime of Having Fallout Shelter

[VXIII]

The city of Austin, Texas, was looking for an excuse to steal Joe Del Rio’s modest home. It found one – it insisted he had a “bunker” beneath the house.

Actually, it was a fallout shelter built during the Cold War, something millions of Americans were encouraged to build by the federal government, beginning in 1961 under the Community Fallout Shelter Program.

The city began its theft by sending the code enforcement team to Mr. Del Rio’s home early one Saturday morning in May of 2010. After the retired Air Force reservist, Vietnam veteran, and former state employee put on some clothes and opened the door, he was rushed by an Austin Police SWAT team. He was detained and interrogated over a period of ten hours.

Neighbors were told to evacuate and the home was searched for more than four hours as emergency personnel staged units nearby. Cops found several weapons and 55-gallon drums they considered suspicious. There was nothing sinister about the drums and the legal weapons were returned to Del Rio after the cops examined them.

Authorities accused Del Rio of having a bunker beneath his house. “The code officers went out to investigate it and the individual was fairly cooperative and showed them what he had been working on, which turned out to be a multi-level underground structure,” Doug Matthews, director of communications for the City of Austin, told the Statesman.

Matthews said the city “had some concerns about the structural integrity of the building and the contents of what was down there,” but this turned out to be a pretext for what would come – not only the wholesale theft of the house, but also socking Del Rio with a bill for $90,000 after the city sued him and then poured 264 tons of concrete into the “bunker” and put up a fence around the perimeter. It yanked the meter off the house, making it uninhabitable.

But this was not the end of Mr. Del Rio’s nightmarish ordeal. The city then condemned the house and took possession of it without paying a single cent in compensation. The elderly Vietnam War veteran was handed over to Adult Protective Services since he is a senior citizen and made homeless, thanks to the government of Austin.

“In my opinion, they wanted my property to start with, and this was a way to take my property away from me,” Del Rio said this week. “The ordeal they put me through was unnecessary. I’ve gotten the runaround. I think they want the property. Condemning it is a cheap way to get it.”

http://www.infowars.com/austin-steal...llout-shelter/

[Northernspark]

This reminded me of two things, first was a short story by Stephen King, "Roadwork". Second was a house down the road from where I used to live, guy decided to dig his own cellar, the whole estate had been built above mine shafts, his house collapsed, the semi next door followed and the whole estate started to subside into the old mine, needless to say I moved to a mine exclusion area, though they're still building on them here! And when I move I'll be looking at bunker or safe cellars!

[HeatherHabilatory]

Since when is having a bunker illegal?

Not that I havvvvvve a bunker or anything.

[Aena]

Found this story about this also,

by NOELLE NEWTON / KVUE News
kvue.com
Posted on May 18, 2010 at 5:34 PM
Updated Tuesday, May 18 at 6:14 PM

Tunnels discovered beneath East Austin home
19 guns taken from tunnels under East Austin home
City to spend $61,500 to fill caverns beneath East Austin home
Gallery
SEE ALL 9 PHOTOS »
The City of Austin Tuesday released photos of the web of tunnels a man dug underneath his East Austin home.
Under the yellow home are three stories of tunnels. For at least two years, neighbors suspected owner Jose Del Rio was up to something strange, but had no idea just how busy he’d been.
“He must have dug day and night, day and night,” said Zeldta Landon.
Landon’s grandmother lives next door to the property. She showed KVUE where the ground has begun to cave in along the fence line. You can even see down into Del Rio’s underground bunker. She says Del Rio was often seen carrying out loads of dirt.
On Tuesday, the city released pictures from below taken by code compliance officers. Del Rio apparently used ladders to travel from level to level.
According to a search warrant executed on May 8th, officers found 19 guns down there, ammunition, batteries and chemicals.
“Primarily some compressed gas tanks, acetylene and oxygen, which are primarily used for welding,” said Melissa Martinez, code compliance department.
KVUE shared the photos with Landon’s family.
“It’s scary to know that he had all that down there. What if something had exploded,” Landon said.
Melissa Martinez with the city code compliance department says the priority is safely removing those chemicals.
The city is working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Once the property is safe, officers will be able to determine just how many code violations Del Rio has and if the house will remain standing.
“I can tell you that our consulting engineering group has given a recommendation on the extent of the excavation and they believe that filling the hole is a viable option,” Martinez said.

We should know the final decision on the property in two weeks

http ://www.kvue.com/news/local/Inside-look-at-East-Austin-tunnel-home-94200924.html