SHEBOYGAN FALLS, Wis. — One vacation rental in downtown Sheboygan Falls looks very different than it did two weeks ago.
The floors have been stripped down to the timber foundations, half the kitchen appliances are missing, and the furniture and decorations have been crammed into two rooms.
Mikenzie Hamel, TMJ4
Ashley Deutsch
Ashley Deutsch, a current master’s student and mother of four, is still trying to process the chaos in her life that has just been wrought by two men in just one night.
Deutsch and her husband own the building, which they bought three years ago with money they received after the deaths of their father and grandmother, with the hope of turning a sad situation into a positive one.
“We took the plunge,” she says. “Our father was a small business owner, and we wanted to follow in his footsteps.”
Mikenzie Hamel, TMJ4
So they set up a vacation rental on the upstairs and reserved the downstairs for business space, and after three years of great guests, Deutsch says, two men from Chicago booked the units there this month.
During their stay, the Germans were woken up around 4 a.m. by frequent notifications from the doorbell camera in their rental property.
The footage showed two men, appearing to be intoxicated, staggering around and slurring their words, with drinks in their hands.
“I’ll kill you on the street,” one of them said, laughing.
“The sink was clogged with pizza, stuff we had for dinner, whatever,” Deutsch said, pointing to where the sink had been.
WATCH: Picking up the pieces: Sheboygan Falls vacation rental, small business destroyed by Vrbo guests
Sheboygan Falls vacation rentals, small businesses destroyed by Vrbo guests
The men left the water running for hours, draining 640 gallons of water.
The floor was completely flooded. “Every time I took a step, water was pouring out of the floor,” she continued. The laundry room was the only part of the entire second floor that was not affected.
Deutsch said she and her husband had to use a crowbar to pry open a kitchen drawer that had swelled with moisture.
Ashley Deutsch
Additional footage shows the men throwing wet towels, bedding and rugs down the stairs, then making a plan to hide it all.
One person suggested they woke up to a mess and claimed it was the dishwasher’s fault.
But Deutsch said he checked with insurance adjusters and plumbers and found the damage was not caused by equipment inside the building.
“It’s really frustrating to hear them lie to justify their actions while they’re wringing a towel between their feet.”
But the damage wasn’t limited to rental properties.
The water ran down the ceiling and walls and down to the floor below.
Earlier this year, the Deutsch family welcomed tattoo artist Jamie Prinsen, who was looking to open her own shop, which she called Peachy Keen Tattoo Studio.
Mikenzie Hamel, TMJ4
She started accepting clients in January, but less than nine months later, she has had to turn away or reschedule all bookings through at least September.
“I’ve spent hundreds of hours making this studio what it is and it feels like it’s all been taken away,” Prinsen said, tears welling up in her eyes as she stood looking at the now-blank pink walls.
Jamie Prinsen
She had received a warning from Deutsches the morning of the flood to check her business.
“I wasn’t expecting anything but I ended up getting soaked.”
Her security camera footage captured the moment she saw the studio floor filling with jaw-dropping amounts of water, the weight of which had caused several black tiles to fall from the ceiling, and the hanging light fixtures suffering the same fate.
Jamie Prinsen
“I would have been more understanding if they had taken some responsibility, but they didn’t,” Prinsen said. “They said things like, ‘We don’t know what happened. It must have been a broken dishwasher.'”
Deutsch, who witnessed the full extent of the damage to the tattoo studio during an interview with TMJ4, said that while it’s a hard truth to swallow, getting Prinsen up and running again as soon as possible is the top priority.
“It’s horrible to see this. It’s unacceptable. It’s horrible,” she said, wiping away tears. “We have had to start selling some of our belongings to pay up front for these expenses.”
Mikenzie Hamel, TMJ4
But as the legal process moves forward, they will likely continue to support each other, as small business owners often do.
“I think we’ll come back stronger,” Prinsen assured.
“We’re going to move forward and rebuild because that’s who we are,” Deutsch added. “We’re not going to let two people and one bad lease stop us from continuing to do business in the future.”
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