Woman tried to have home she doesn't own demolished because she didn't like the residents

A 62-year-old Florida woman tried to have a home she doesn't own demolished because she didn't like the people who live there, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. Ana Moreta Folch is charged with felony property damage after she called a land-clearing company and told them she wanted an unoccupied mobile home she owned torn down, deputies said.



The company started bulldozing the home on Monday, and about an hour in, a neighbour alerted the property owner, Maria Gottfried, who raced over to see her rooms turning to rubble. Gottfried called deputies. Moreta Folch told them she didn't like the people living there, but then said she was doing the county a favour by having the mobile home demolished, deputies said.

Gottfried told Thomas Masters she is the homeowner, and Masters immediately turned off his bulldozer, but not before $25,000 in damage was done. Masters said he found himself in the middle of a family feud and said Moreta Folch tried to get him to finish the job. "I've been doing this for 24 years and it's the first time I've seen a report like that come through our office," said Kevin Kelshaw, of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.



"The victim also owns other properties, and one of those pieces of property is where the suspect resides." Masters said the trailer was abandoned years ago and stripped of valuables and belongings, but now the owner doesn't even have four walls to return home to. "She's out the money that the mobile home was worth and a septic tank," Kelshaw said. "It will probably go through the court system, and the suspect would probably have to make restitution if she would be able to."

With news video.