PITTSBURGH -- In recent years, the city of Pittsburgh has been aggressive about tearing down abandoned homes. But in the case of one North Side man, the city was perhaps too aggressive.

Henry Schwartz's garage was next to an abandoned home the city demolished last week. When city crews tore down the house, they also tore down Schwartz's garage.

"And he says, your garage is gone. I said, what?" Swartz said.

Gone with the garage are decades worth of antiques and family heirlooms Schwartz said his parents entrusted to him.

"I have to tell my brothers and sisters that everything we had is gone," Schwartz said.

The city said the demolition inspector made a rare blunder, thinking the garage was part of the vacant property. Schwartz wants a refund. But Pittsburgh Public Safety Chief Michael Huss said he doesn't know what kind of compensation, if any, Schwartz might receive.

"I can't answer that. The law department is handling it, but we apologize for the mistake and we acknowledged that we did in fact make a mistake here," said Huss

Channel 4 Action News Reporter Aaron Saykin asked Huss if he considered the accidental demolition somewhat embarrassing.

" The inspectors have a very difficult job. They're out in the street and they're in the front line of this. We're tearing down over 500 vacant properties. A mistake happened. I've acknowledged that mistake. And from that point on we're going to move forward," Huss said.

While the legal process sorts itself out, Schwartz is stuck for the time being with a whole lot of vacant land. He said he'll probably plant a garden somewhere because that way -- he says -- if the city tears that down too, it's not hard to replace.