Yes, it happens.
I know someone who had a vacant lot in a nice area near a lake in N. Carolina.
One day she got a call from a person who wanted to buy that lot, today, unconditionally, for a good price.
Turns out that someone else had bought another lot. Now, real property tends to have two addresses - a legal one by lot and parcel number based on a map, and a mailing address.
In this case that other person's lot had the correct legal address but had my friend's mailing address.
Guess which address that other person's contractor used when building a new house? Right, the mailing address. Oops. The building inspector came out, went to the legal address to find a vacant lot. The inspector figured it out and red-tagged the construction on my friend's lot.
My friend ended up with a new lot - a nicer one - purchased I suspect by a title insurance company.
Once in LA a wrecking company tore down the wrong building via the same kind of mistake.
