Cops say a beautiful home was completely trashed by the owners after the bank foreclosed on them. If they are convicted, they may face time in jail. INSIDE EDITON has the story.
A once gorgeous home was totally trashed. The kitchen was ripped apart, the bathrooms gutted, and the bedrooms' walls defaced with graffiti.
It looked like a gang of vandals tore the place apart. But believe it or not, cops say the damage was done by the homeowners themselves, right after their house was foreclosed on.
Cops say they were so upset about losing their home, they trashed the place.
Robert Acosta and his wife Monique are accused of causing $200,000 in damage to the home that was once their pride and joy. They have pled not guilty.
Acosta left court clutching a bible, and all he had to say was, "God is great."
He was a cop with the San Diego Police Department, and she's a real estate agent. They bought the six bedroom home in an upscale suburb of San Diego in 2006, but lost it to foreclosure, and cops say that drove them over the edge.
Our Jim Moret got a tour of the wrecked home from Natalie Tagle, a realtor representing an investor who was thinking of buying the property.
The vandals didn't just remove the appliances, they also destroyed the cabinets. "Everything here is a total loss," observed Moret.
In the bathrooms, the tiles were been damaged beyond repair, the vanities torn out, and the toilets stuffed with garbage. There was even elaborate graffiti on the bedroom walls.
A neighbor says the homeowner actually borrowed a sledgehammer to smash up the house, putting huge holes in the walls and tearing the stone facade from the front of the home.
Pictures show one fireplace before and after—reduced to a pile of rubble. The front entrance, once adorned with stone, was smashed to pieces.
A neighbor took pictures that show Monique Acosta cutting down a tree in the back yard and Robert Acosta loading kitchen cabinets into a moving truck.
The homeowners who lost their home may now lose much more. If convicted, they face up to four years in jail for what cops say was a senseless orgy of destruction.
Robert Acosta resigned from the police department and the couple has now relocated. The house is still being fixed up and will be put back on the market over the summer.
