Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown is demanding demolition crews stop removing personal items from units in the Realty Building immediately. 

21 News told you Monday the demolition company is legally permitted to take any items out of the building they want. As tensions rise among residents wanting their valuables back in their safekeeping, the city says their hands may be tied. 

On Tuesday afternoon, two Realty Tower residents were escorted off the site after demanding answers on where their valuables were located.

Mike Durkin oversees demolition projects in the city. Durkin told 21 News the city can't step in because the city did not hire Moderalli Excavating, the Realty Building owners did.

Mayor Brown said in a statement, "The taking of property from the Realty Tower is unacceptable. This was someone's home and those belongings represent their personal story. I spoke with Modarelli Excavating owner today and reiterated that workers on site removing property should not be tolerated."

The owners of the building shared the following statement:

“As building owners, we did everything within our legal ability to retrieve as many of the residents’ personal items as feasibly possible. We also needed to consider the safety of the firemen, who bravely volunteered their services to conduct the retrieval process. At this time, we wish to respect the residents’ privacy and complex emotions surrounding this matter. However, we do want to reiterate that as building owners, we followed industry standards and operations as advised to us by legal and industry counsel and turned possession and liability of the property to the demolition contractor once our retrieval process was complete.”

Councilwoman Davis told 21 News crews should take the time to remove sentimental belongings if they are willing to remove valuables.

"It's the law but it's not the moral thing to do," Davis said. "We can ask them while they're grabbing your material items to reach for the things that belong to those people who live there."

Moderalli Excavating owners agreed that the actions will not be permitted moving forward. Brown went on to say, "I explained that this process has been hard enough for the residents and it is disheartening to hear that this is happening."

YPD told 21 News they have not received any additional police reports about personal property being removed.