Owner Of Home Destroyed During Standoff Fuming About City's Compensation Offer
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (CBS4) - The owner of a home that is now in ruins following a police standoff with a shoplifting suspect in Greenwood Village has learned the home has to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Police blew several massive holes in the house during the 17-hour ordeal last week when shoplifting suspect Robert Seacat entered the home randomly.
The homeowner, Leo Lech, says after meeting with building inspectors he's learned the home is a total loss. The process could take months and the family isn't happy with the money that the city has offered them to get by financially.
"You've come and obliterated their home, obliterated their life. The pictures on the inside of the house, they are graphic. It's the most horrific scene you could ever imagine in there," Leo Lech said.
Lech and his son John, who rents the home, say the city is offering them $5,000 for living expenses until the home can be rebuilt. John Lech says a furnished extended stay hotel will cost a lot more than $5,000.
"(It's) $159 a night. So if you add it up buy 30 nights, that's about $4,700. And I called the city back and told them that. I said, 'Look, this is going to give us one month,' " John Lech said.
Greenwood Village says they offered the money for temporary living arrangements. They've also asked Lech to submit a claim to the city for personal property lost inside the home. It's the homeowners insurance that will rebuild the house, but that could take months.
"The ethical, the moral thing to do is to pay for this family's living expenses until they can get back into their home," Leo Lech said. "I asked for them to please expedite this so that we can start the building process as soon as possible … so this family can get back into this home."
The Lech family says they have retained an attorney and will move forward now with guidance from legal counsel.
