Property owner says Vrbo guests deliberately flooded her home, causing thousands in damages

SHEBOYGAN FALLS, Wis. (WTMJ) - It’s every rental property owner’s worst nightmare, someone visits and causes hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

Ashley Deutsch, a property owner in Wisconsin, said that’s what exactly happened to her.

Deutsch said she’s got video proof that renters deliberately flooded her property while they were staying in the building that she owns.

“Every time you took a step, water would be squishing out from the floors,” she said.

According to Deutsch, she is still trying to process what happened and why.

The property owner says she started to get notifications around 4 a.m. from their camera outside the door, showing renters with drinks in hand, stumbling and slurring their words.

Deutsch said the renters left a wake of damages after leaving the water running for hours - 640 gallons of water.

“The sink was clogged with pizza and things that they might’ve had at dinner,” Deutsch said.

Two men can be seen throwing towels, bedding and rugs downstairs - all soaked - in a video shared by Deutsch.

The property owner says the renters could also be seen and heard trying to devise a plan to cover it up.

“It’s so frustrating to hear them trying to come up with lies to excuse their behavior as he’s wringing out a towel with his feet,” Deutsch said.

The rental wasn’t the only thing damaged either. The business owner of a unit downstairs was also hit.

Jamie Princen opened her tattoo shop less than nine months ago. But now she’s closed through at least the end of September.

“It was just soaked. Hundreds of hours of work into making this studio what it was and just seeing all of that just kind of ripped away,” Princen said.

According to Princen, they have taken legal action and started selling items to cover some of the expenses to fix the damage.

Both owners said they are supporting one another as they are dealing with the cleanup.

“I think think that we will come back a lot stronger,” Princen said.

Copyright 2024 WTMJ via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.