DETROIT – On the surface, it appears to be a huge success for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's plan to bring families back to neighborhoods by auctioning abandoned homes.
A home in the Boston Edison district sold for $135,000, but Local 4 has learned that because of a glitch in the computer system, two people were declared the winning bidders.
Local 4's cameras were there when one of the bidders found out there was a problem.
"As far as right now in my mind, I won," said Carl Hollier. "I'm not trying to be a sore winner, but this has been extremely stressful."
The Land Bank released a statement Friday night, saying to be fair it will re-auction the home on June 6. It will be open to all bidders.
The statement said: "Due to overwhelming interest in today's auctioned properties, our website BuildingDetroit.org crashed near the end of the auction and several bidders were unable to submit their final bids for the property at 115 Chicago Boulevard.
"At the time the website went down shortly after 5:30 p.m., bids were up to $135,000 -- a new high for our auction. To be fair to all, we will offer that property again on June 6th, after increasing the website's capacity.
"We have spoken with the two final bidders who, despite being disappointed, indicate they both plan to bid again on June 6."