Landlords From Hell: SF Couple Threatened Tenants, Cut Off Utilities, Stole Possessions in Extraordinary Case (VIDEO)
So-called "landlords from hell" are likely to be sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty to a string of extraordinary offenses against their tenants.
Authorities have claimed that the husband and wife landlords from California continually menaced their tenants by carrying out various atrocious actions. In one incident the landlords cut holes in the floor of one victim's living room with a power saw while he was inside the apartment.
In another incident they soaked their victims' beds, clothes and electronics with ammonia, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.
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District attorney George Gascon said in a statement: "The actions of these defendants are so outlandish and brazen that it sounds like the plot line of a horror movie. This case shows you you cannot flee this country and avoid the consequences of your actions. These defendants will be held fully accountable for their crimes."
The landlords from hell, Kip Macy, 38, and his wife, Nicole Macy, 37, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of residential burglary, one felony count of stalking and one felony count of attempted grand theft, according to ABC News.
The landlords owners an entire apartment building in the South of Market area of San Francisco.
They are believed to have wanted to evict their tenants at all costs so that they could completely renovate the property and sell off the apartments individually as condominiums. To get everyone out as quickly as possible they allegedly went on a rampage to make their lives hell.
Nicole Macy is alleged to have sent fraudulent emails to the attorney of one of their tenants. In the email she pretended to be the tenant, and attempted to try and fire the attorney to get them off the case, according to the DA's office.
The DA's office said in a news release: "The defendants also cut multiple sections out of the joists below the victim's floors, in an apparent attempt to make the floor collapse while people were standing on it. Before cutting the joists, Nicole Macy had asked a Department of Building Inspector which beam she would need to cut to make the building structurally unsound in order to red tag the building and order all tenants out."
However, an attorney for Kip Macy, Lisa DewBerry, denied the accusations about cutting the support beams, telling KGO-TV: "He and his wife were naive when coming to a town like San Francisco, to try and do what they wanted to do, not realizing how tough the landlord-tenant laws are here. They're not saying that their behavior was appropriate. They regret their behavior."
In yet another amazing incident, the couple are said to have purchased a semi-automatic handgun and threatened to shoot the building manager. Other incidents in the list include changing locks without permission, cutting tenants' phone lines, turning off utilities to tenants for no reason, taking tenants' possessions from their apartments and destroying them, burglary, and threatening tenants with abusive letters.
All the incidents are said to have taken place between 2005 and 2007, and they were originally charged in April 2008. However, after posting bail the couple fled to Italy. They were finally arrested in Italy in May 2012 and extradited back to the United States in May 2013.
The couple has now pleaded guilty to four felony counts and are believed to be awaiting a sentencing hearing on August 22 where they are expected to get four years and four months.
Here is a video news report into the incident:
