Police hold back crowds at Laney Walker store eviction

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/business/2013-03-26/police-hold-back-crowds-laney-walker-store-eviction?page=1

by Steve Crawford and Meg Mirshak, chronicle.augusta.com
March 27th 2013

Officials estimated 200 to 300 people filled the parking lot at Laney Supermarket, 843 Laney-Walker Blvd., after word spread that the Richmond County Marshal’s Office was enforcing an eviction at the business.

Officials said onlookers became angry when they learned they would not be allowed to take away food and other sundries that were piled outside the grocery as “abandoned property.”

The crowd dissipated after a swarm of deputies arrived, along with Sheriff Richard Roundtree, to assist the three marshals who had been initially assigned to the eviction.

“There is the potential to have people fighting and causing problems,” Lt. Calvin Chew said. “That’s not something we want.”

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Teresa Russell, a chief deputy with the marshal’s office, said the landlord, SunTrust Bank, was paying to have the displaced merchandise hauled away.

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A court-ordered eviction notice was served Feb. 13. Russell said the tenant failed to file an answer, so a judge signed the final order Feb. 27. SunTrust delayed scheduling the eviction until Tuesday.

According to Russell, a final notice was posted on the grocery’s door Friday. The tenant removed some goods from the store Tuesday morning before leaving, she said.

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Johanne Vargas, an agent for property manager FirstService Residential Realty, based in Sandy Springs, Ga., said she was unable to discuss the matter when asked why the groceries were not donated.

Joseph Young, who helps run a youth mentoring program in the same shopping center as the supermarket, watched marshals stand guard as food was tossed into the trash.

“We could have gotten some of this stuff and done something special for the kids this weekend,” Young said.


http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Augusta-grocery-store-getting-evicted-200060001.html

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

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Teresa Russell, chief deputy of the Marshal's Office in Richmond County, says the owner of the building ordered that all of the food and other items removed from the store be taken to the landfill.

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Cans of baby food, canned vegetables, packages of Ramen noodles and boxes of tissues were all hauled off to the landfill.

"That's showing us you don't give a damn about the City of Augusta," Santiago said.

Employees at the landfill say people waiting in the crowd followed the truck full of food to the landfill and had to be turned away.

SunTrust Bank in Atlanta is listed as the owner of the building.

Mike McCoy, a media relations officer for the company, says, "We are working with store suppliers as well as law enforcement to dispose of the remaining contents of the store and secure the building."

McCoy says the food never belonged to and does not belong to SunTrust Bank.

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http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-03-27/golden-harvest-food-bank-receive-items-evicted-grocery-store

By Meg Mirshak
Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Nonperishable groceries once destined for the Richmond County landfill were donated Wednesday to Golden Harvest Food Bank.

Three large trash bins filled with merchandise from Laney Supermarket, 843 Laney-Walker Boulevard, were stored overnight at a warehouse of Thompson Building and Wrecking, a company hired by the grocery’s property manager for disposal of the items.

A handful of staff members separated canned foods from household items, and boxed the items Wednesday morning. A Golden Harvest truck retrieved the load, which filled about half the truck.

Perishable items, including meat and produce, were taken to the landfill, said Hiram Thompson, president of Thompson Building and Wrecking.

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Perishable items, even if retrieved immediately from the store, might not have been salvageable, McNeal said. It would have been difficult to know whether meat had been properly refrigerated.

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