'Smell inside was nearly unbearable'
David Cole | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 3 months AGO
<p>Police are currently investigating after tenants trashed a unit over a dispute with the landlord at the Holiday Motel on Coeur d'Alene Lake drive. Damages include destruction of walls, floors and appliances as well as graffiti throughout most of the unit.</p>
<p>Most appliances were destroyed or stolen when tenants trashed a unit at the Holiday Motel on Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive over a dispute with the landlord. Police are currently investigating charges of vandalism and malicious injury to property.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - An apartment unit at the Holiday Motel sustained approximately $15,000 in damage, and the tenants also allegedly stole about $5,000 in appliances and other items.
"We haven't nailed down the final price yet, but it's up there in that area," Janet F. King, the hotel's manager, told The Press Wednesday.
She said the tenant has finally been booted from the property, located at 219 E. Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive.
According to a police incident report released Wednesday, King told investigators the tenant in unit No. 12 was $1,900 behind on rent payments and she was in the process of evicting him.
The tenant had two other men staying with him, she said.
The tenant earlier warned King that if she forced him to leave he would destroy the place to the point that nobody ever would rent the unit again.
"On several occasions, (King) told me that (the tenant) scared her so bad she had to back away and leave the area," one officer wrote in his report.
When she checked the inside of the unit on Sunday, she found holes in the walls, floors that had been cut up, the heating system was destroyed, and graffiti was sprayed all over the walls.
King said an air-conditioning unit and other appliances were taken.
"There was a large amount of flies flying around the inside of the home and the smell inside was nearly unbearable," the officer's report said. "I worked as quickly as I could as it seemed the interior of the home could have been a health hazard."
The officer said the floor was coated in "something I was unable to identify."
The report said there was a hole between the kitchen and living room area.
"The bathroom on the upper level was very dirty and there was a pair of underwear in the sink which appeared to be clogged," the report said.
In the basement, police found garbage piled up at the bottom of the stairs.
"There was a heavy concentration of flies downstairs and they were nearly always hitting my face as I walked around the basement," the officer wrote.
Downstairs, he found damage to the doors, cabinet doors under the bathroom sink and more graffiti.
"At one point, I also found what appeared to be a used condom sitting on a TV which was on the floor in the hallway," he wrote.
Because of the potential health hazard of being inside the unit, "I decided to work quickly, take as many photos as I could, and then get out," the officer wrote.
Sgt. Christie Wood of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department said no charges have been filed and no arrests made, but detectives just received the case on Wednesday.