CLARKSTON, Mich. – Dennis Theakston's drag racer was stolen from a hotel parking lot last spring, and as fall approaches, his life still isn't back in order.
Theakston wound up at the hotel because his house burned down. He was trying to move on with his life, tear the house down and rebuild, but he ran into a road block: Utility phone limbo
"My heart sank to my feet," Theakston said.
Hotel surveilance video showed thieves making off with Theakston's dragster, which was sitting on an open trailer the night he'd been rained out of a benefit race.
"It kills me," he said. "It's been my life for 15 years."
His racer is a Ford hybrid of his own making. It never turned up, but his pull truck was found abandoned in Detroit. Since then, Theakston has been trying to rebuild his life by leveling his burned home to rebuild.
"Oh it's just totally frustrating," he said.
Utility bureaucracy left him feeling helpless.
"They kept passing me from person to person, and, 'This person will get back to you' and, 'I'll talk to my supervisor' and, 'I'll get back to you' and no one ever got back to me."
He called Local 4 and, after a few calls, a DTE truck pulled up and lineman Ken Marchesio removed the wire from the house, which is the first step toward getting permits to demolish the house.
"I wish Consumers would do the same right now," Theakston said.
Consumers marked off the line, but said it couldn't get to the house until next Wednesday.
"My contractor wants to work on it all weekend, and he wants to have this thing leveled by the weekend," Theakston said. "I would like that too. He's threatening to go to another job."
Theakston said he's building a new dragster.
"I appreciated Channel 4 for coming out and doing this interview and getting this rolling," he said.
Theakston said he's been trying for a month and a half to get the utilities turned off. Consumers said its first record of requests was Aug. 3. Either way, it's been a month.
Consumers said due to the busy home building boomlet, they have been swamped with connection requests and next Wednesday is actually an expedited service.