By NAOMI LARKIN
The toilet was smashed, the fridge and stove hacked with an axe and panelling ripped from the walls in the worst case of burglary-house trashing Christchurch police can recall.
Landlady Leanne Hawkins told the Herald yesterday that everything that could be lifted up in the two-storey townhouse in Hastings St, Waltham, had been smashed and the place flooded.
"I've never seen anything like it. I can't believe someone would do so much to a place like this. It's just chaos.
"The toilet has been completely smashed - there's no toilet left. The oven has been smashed, the fridge has been slashed with an axe and every bit of wood panelling has been pulled off the walls.
"They filled the bath and every sink in the place and just left the taps going and it's overflowed everywhere.
"It's unreal to start the New Year off like this."
Christchurch senior crime officer Senior Constable Merv Davis, who deals regularly with house break-ins and damage, said he had never seen such destruction.
Ms Hawkins said her heart went out to her tenant, Liam Edser, who had made the flat his home for the past seven years.
He arrived home on Sunday to find the devastation.
The attack cut off electricity in a next-door flat and the damage was discovered on Sunday morning when an electricity company was called in.
Ms Hawkins said it was too early to estimate how much repairs would cost, but it would be "thousands of dollars."
"We have to completely redo the whole inside of the flat. We have a shell and that's without anything that he [the tenant] had in there."
Ms Hawkins said she had found another flat for Mr Edser to live in until his place was renovated.
Although the townhouse was one of six in a block five minutes from central Christchurch, no one had called police to report the wrecking spree, she said.
"I think in this day and age a lot of people really just don't want to get involved.
"I think it's quite sad. Maybe we need to get involved if we hear a bit more going on."
Sydenham police have arrested a 17-year-old, who appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with burglary. He was remanded in custody and was due to appear again today. Police say more charges are pending.
Home trashed, axed, flooded
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