Bend family’s new home hit by vandalism

From the outside, it looks like a typical house, but when Bend resident Rick Miller got the keys to his new home, he was greeted with a nightmare.

“It was just raining from the second floor all the way down,” Miller said. “So everything kind of went straight down and out, the carpet on the entire second floor got saturated.”

When Miller signed on the dotted line to purchase his home last week, everything was move-in ready –a great deal on a foreclosed home.

“This had actually been a dream come true, especially for my wife,” Miller said Monday. “This is the perfect house for her, and we’ve never been able to get a house like this because of finances.”

So imagine his shock when he got the keys last week and opened the door to find water raining down from the second floor, a smashed toilet in the master bath — vandalism, graffiti and beer cans littering the house.

“Panic struck me, my heart sunk, and my 3-year-old said, ‘Daddy, there’s a waterfall in here.”‘

Heart-wrenching for a man who’s been struggling to get his family of seven back to home ownership after losing their house several years ago in Sisters to the recession.

“So much weight and depression, I couldn’t sleep,” Miller said of the first few days following the discovery of the damage.

Police are still looking for the suspects — and say something this bad is fairly rare.

Most of the rooms are now gutted. With demolition and repairs, Miller says the total cost could be up to $90,000.

He said his insurance company won’t pay up — the damage occurred before they finished closing. And the previous owners are denying responsibility as well, saying the water shouldn’t have been on at that point. Miller said it had accidentally been left on after an appraisal.

He can’t afford the costs, but Miller says the last few days have put his life in perspective–and he now feels lifted up.

“People came out from everywhere to offer their support and expertise and construction, labor, materials,” Miller said. “An awesome experience.”

And in the end, what makes Miller truly know everything will be okay is the support from his wife and five kids.

“(The kids said), ‘We can live in our rooms and we can get the work done.’ They’ve been so positive and upbeat. I’m very impressed with my attitude for my kids and my whole family. And we’ll manage.”

If you would like to help the family pay for the repair costs, you can visit a fund that has been set up for them at GoFundMe.com. There, you can search for ‘Rick Miller’ and ‘Vandalism Reconstruction.’