Newly-renovated Slidell-area home falls victim to vandals

Randy and Desiree Calamari had a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, but those good feelings were eclipsed recently when they looked at what vandals had done to a house they had just rebuilt after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

Two entrance doors had been torn down, almost every window in the house had been broken, appliances in the kitchen and kitchen cabinets had been destroyed, and there were huge gaping holes on every wall in the house.

In the bathroom, a vandal or group of vandals had ripped the toilet from the floor and smashed it into several pieces. Outside, the compressor for the air conditioning system lay on its side, wiring and cooling ducts ripped from the house’s facia.

All the new ceiling fan fixtures had been torn out and were hanging uselessly, and the fans’ vanes were broken off and strewn all over the house.

“I just don’t understand why someone would do this,” Desiree said with tears in her eyes.

The massive vandalism was bad enough, but the couple were one day away from having the parish building inspector give his final approval to the house that had taken three years to rebuild.

The house, located on Wesley Road, a one block cul-de-sac right off Thompson Road just outside Slidell, had taken on 6 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. Desiree’s mother, who owned the house, was forced to move to Bayou Paquet Road.

While waiting for the money to rebuild the house, the Calamaris decided they would rent the house once it had been renovated.

On Oct. 23, an electrician went to the house to finish some wiring and discovered the vandalism.

He called the Calamaris, who then called the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office. Deputies estimated the vandals had broken into the house sometime on Oct. 21. Detectives were able to find some fingerprints, said Desiree, but there wasn’t a lot of hope the culprits would be found.

The house is the only building on the street and is isolated from any other houses in the area. Randy said there were no reports of anyone hearing anything.

That surprised him, because of all the noise made from breaking windows. But the nearest house is across Thompson Road and set back far from the road.

The Calamaris don’t know what the motivation was behind the act of destruction.

They don’t think theft was a reason, because nothing was taken, and all the copper pipes and wiring were still there.

“This is just unbelievable,” Randy said.

The couple don’t know what they are going to do. They only had liability insurance on the house and don’t know how they will pay for the repairs.

“We might be forced to sell the house,” Desiree said.

She had not told her mother yet about the vandalism and wondered how the 73-year-old woman would take the news.

“I just hope they catch these people,” Desiree said.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett said Wednesday that several detectives are working on the case, but they are not ready to make any arrests.

If anyone has any information on the incident, Bonnett urges them to call the Sheriff’s Slidell Investigations Unit at 646-4119.