Sheboygan Falls vacation home and small business destroyed by Vrbo guests

SHEBOYGAN FALLS, Wisconsin – A vacation rental in downtown Sheboygan Falls looks much different than it did two weeks ago.

The floors have been stripped down to the wood, half of the kitchen appliances are missing and the furniture and decorations have been crammed into two rooms.

Mikenzie Hammel, TMJ4

Ashley German

Ashley Deutsch, an active master’s student and mother of four, is still trying to process the chaos in her life – chaos caused by two men in just one night.

Deutsch owns the building with her husband. They bought it three years ago with money they received after the deaths of their father and grandmother, hoping to make something positive out of a sad situation.

“We relied on our trust,” she said. “My father was a small business owner and we wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

Mikenzie Hammel, TMJ4

So they opened a vacation rental upstairs, saving them from having to take up commercial space downstairs. Deutsch said they had wonderful guests for three years – until two men from Chicago booked the apartment this month.

During their stay, the Germans were awakened around 4:00 a.m. by constant notifications from their doorbell camera on the rental unit.

The footage shows the two men appearing to be drunk, holding drinks, stumbling and slurring their words.

“I’m going to fight you damn well in the streets,” one said, laughing.

“The sink was clogged with pizza and other things they may have eaten for dinner,” said Deutsch, pointing to the spot where the sink had previously been.

Watch: Picking up the pieces: Sheboygan Falls vacation rental and small business destroyed by Vrbo guests

Sheboygan Falls vacation home and small business destroyed by Vrbo guests

The men let the water run for hours – 640 gallons.

The floor was completely flooded. “Every time you took a step, water sprayed out of the floor,” she continued. Only the laundry room on the entire upper floor was undamaged.

Deutsch said she and her husband had to use a crowbar to break open the kitchen drawers because they were so saturated with moisture.

Ashley German

Additional footage shows the men throwing soaked towels, bedding and rugs down the stairs as they hatch a plan to cover it all up.

One said they claimed they woke up to the chaos and blamed the dishwasher.

But Deutsch said she had confirmed with an insurance adjuster and a plumber that the damage was not caused by an appliance in the building.

“It’s so frustrating to listen to them make up lies to excuse their behavior while he wrings a towel with his feet.”

However, the damage was not limited to the rental unit.

The water came down the stairs and dripped through the ceiling and walls.

Earlier this year, the Germans welcomed Jamie Princen, a tattoo artist who was ready to open her own shop. She called it Peachy Keen Tattoo Studio.

Mikenzie Hammel, TMJ4

She started accepting clients in January, but now, less than nine months later, she has had to decline or postpone all appointments until at least September.

“Hundreds of hours of work went into developing this studio and seeing it all kind of took me away,” Princen said, her teary eyes wandering over the now empty pink walls.

Jamie Prince

She was alerted by the Germans on the morning of the flood and asked to look after her business.

“I wasn’t expecting anything and it was just soaked.”

Her own security camera footage shows her seeing the studio floor so full of water she could have seen her jaw drop. Several black tiles had fallen from the ceiling under the weight of the water. The hanging lights were in danger of the same fate.

Jamie Prince

“I would have been more understanding if they had taken responsibility, but they didn’t,” Princen said. “They said something like, ‘We don’t know what happened. It must have been a dishwasher malfunction.'”

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the priority is to get Princen back up and running as soon as possible, according to Deutsch, who saw the full extent of the damage at the tattoo parlor during the TMJ4 interview.

“It’s awful to see this. This is not right. This is awful,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “We had to start selling some of our things to cover some of these expenses.”

Mikenzie Hammel, TMJ4

But while the litigation plays out, they will continue to support each other, as small business owners often do.

“I think we will come back much stronger,” Princen assured.

“We’re going to move forward… and rebuild because that’s exactly the kind of people we are,” Deutsch added. “We’re not going to let two people and a bad rent stop us from continuing our business in the future.”

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