Man destroys new home with excavator in Post Falls
CAROLYN BOSTICK | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month AGO
Carolyn Bostick has worked for the Coeur d’Alene Press since June 2023. She covers Shoshone County and Coeur d'Alene. Carolyn previously worked in Utica, New York at the Observer-Dispatch for almost seven years before briefly working at The Inquirer and Mirror in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Since she moved to the Pacific Northwest from upstate New York in 2021, she's performed with the Spokane Shakespeare Society for three summers. | November 12, 2025 1:09 AM
POST FALLS — Fred Kudrna, 29, was arrested for DUI and malicious injury to property Tuesday morning after Post Falls police say he took an excavator and used it to demolish a house.
Dispatchers began receiving 911 calls regarding a person destroying a newly constructed home near the intersection of Alsea Avenue and West Platte Court with an excavator around 5:30 a.m.
Resident Wayne Isley said he was startled by the noise in the neighborhood, which still has homes being completed.
“About 5 a.m., I heard a big bang and looked out the window. The next thing I heard was a big boom and then there were a lot of cars and lights and everyone was here,” Isley said.
Isley said he had just moved into their new home about a month ago and his heart went out to the people who were hoping to live in the now destroyed home.
“Do you think he was mad?” Isley asked. “For him to drive that thing from over there to here to do that is ridiculous.”
Post Falls Police Lt. Brian Harrison said the home still belonged to Sorbonne Homes LLC, an affiliate of Greenstone Homes.
“All of the homes are being built with Ring cameras and then it’s up to the homeowner to activate their subscription. This created a ruckus, so quite a few homeowners sent us videos of the incident as it was unfolding,” Harrison said.
Joe Frank, president of Greenstone Homes, said the house had recently been completed by Sorbonne Homes before being illegally demolished Tuesday.
There was no purchase agreement in place for home, although there was a party interested in purchasing the home, according to Greenstone Homes.
After the disappointment that this happened to a fully built site they were in the process of selling, Frank said the company has turned to remedying the lot.
“Our team's working as fast as they can to clean up the site and have it be a clean environment,” Frank said.
An initial investigation found that Kudrna is currently without a permanent address and has worked in construction, but no motive is known for demolishing the house.
“It was not a Greenstone employee or employee any of our sister affiliates,” Frank said.
Post Falls police estimated the value of the home at about $500,000.
Law enforcement said Kudrna got into his van and tried to flee and then was hiding out while parked nearby.
“We saw him trying to leave the area, conducted a traffic stop and apprehended him,” Harrison said.
Police expect more charges to come regarding the incident.
“The weird thing is, it appears he got the excavator and drove across a field across the street, demolished the house and then went and parked it generally where he got it from,” Harrison said. “That's why you don’t see the excavator in any of the photos, he parked it again.”
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