World’s Most Patient Wife Forgives Husband For Bulldozing Her House
If there’s any story that will make you believe in the or forgiveness, it is this tale of one brave man who rented a bulldozer and flattened his wife’s house without her knowledge or permission. Somehow, he says, she’s already gotten over it and they’re, “good.”
James Rhein, the real-life Byron the Bulldozer, lived in a single-family house that belonged to his wife. It was not legally his property, but he said it was dilapidated and run-down and needed to be demolished because the foundation was cracking, and when he decided the house needed to come down, he decided it needed to come down right that minute. He tried to get a permit to demolish it on Monday, but could not because Monday was a national holiday. But he decided a permit was not going to stop him, so he rented a bulldozer and just went to town on that house all by himself. Police showed up as he was throwing bits of debris in dumpsters.
“So I took it down, that’s it,” he told NBC.
Rhein had the utilities turned off before he began bulldozing, and he said everything in the house was replaceable. So he just went ahead and flattened the whole damn thing, contents and all.
Rhein wasn’t going to wait for a permit, or for his wife’s permission. He says he tried to call her, but she didn’t answer her cell. So he flattened her house without her knowledge. She learned about the destruction when she pulled up to the house Monday and it was just gone. A neighbor said she did not appear pleased.
“She was very upset. She was in the middle of the road screaming, ‘her house, what happened to her house?'” the neighbor said. But Rhein said she eventually got over it, even though the bulldozing happened just Monday.
“We’re good,” Rhein said. “I’m a good husband, what can I tell you?”
