Went by the old house this morning to pickup any straggler mail from the move to the new house and found that someone had broken into through a back window and had proceeded to destroy the downstairs walls. Thankfully, they must have been scared off before they got to the copper pipes or were dissuaded by finding Plex piping in a couple of the holes they punched into the drywall. After they saw that I didn't have any copper for them to steal, they proceeded to kick in 14 holes in the drywall with their feet and a pole from outside before departing the house.
I reported the break-in immediately after clearing the house (1911 in 400 Corbon with a 185gr Cast boolit in pipe) and after waiting 45 minutes for the Sheriff's Deputy to appear, filed a police report on the break-in and damage. They only have two Deputies covering the entire northern section of a 20x20mile county.
I spent the entire day cutting out the damaged sections of the drywall and cutting and patching the holed sections of the walls.
Tomorrow I'll sand and apply a final coat of mud before painting the rooms over again at the end of the week (the end of the month can't come too soon right now.) I also cleared up the broken window in the frame they used to access the house. That window will be at Lowes by Sunday. Right now there is a plywood cover on the window to keep the rain out.
Later this afternoon while taking a break, I caught sight of the three local troublemakers in the neighborhood peeking out from some nearby bushes across the street. I walked over to the three and told them that I can't directly prove that they did it right now but that the Deputy Sheriff took the wooden pole and fingerprints from it and the broken street sign the vandals used would tell the police soon enough who was behind the damage and force a restitution from the little coward(s). Either the 3 realized the gig would soon be up or their eyes bulged by seeing the 1911 in my waistband and they skedaddled.
I also made a point of walking over to their parent's houses and talked to each of their mothers and two fathers to please keep an eye on my house while I am in the process of moving out from the neighborhood and explained to them what happened to my house.
I also told the parents that I saw their boys observing my repairs from the treeline which makes me wonder if they knew more than they let on to the local Deputy when he spoke to him about what they might have seen since Tuesday (when I my wife came by to check on the house) Marti will be carrying a 4" Taurus 357Mag revolver in 38Spl (200gr RN) Manstopper should she need to come by this old house in the next few weeks before we return it to the leasing agent.
So far, the cost of repairs was nearly $200 dollars for drywall materials and an entire day off from work for me which (accounts for another $150 after taxes) Tomorrow, I'll be replacing the kitchen shelves and cupboards and that will be another $200 and since I'm doing all the work myself, the little thugs have already exceeded the criminal mischief level and could be a felony conviction if I exceed $500 (which I have at this point) and I haven't yet had the double-paned glass replaced.
Since its rental unit, The leasing agent was very apologetic about the damage and just told me to patch and tape the lower holes and they would do the rest to include painting but I'll put a coat of paint on the patches first.
Thankfully, The little SOBs only damaged the downstairs rooms. None of the rooms in the other parts of the house were in touched.