TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Vandals trash Army reservist's home

News Channel 8 photo by DAVE KRAUT

Arleen Agosto sifts through paint-splattered photos after her Wesley Chapel home was vandalized.

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 12, 2009

Updated: 06/12/2009 02:40 pm

WESLEY CHAPEL - The stench of urine and feces met Army reservist Arleen Agosto when she returned home Thursday.

The emergency-room nurse, who has been treating wounded combat soldiers at Fort Eustis, Va., received a call a few days ago from a friend, saying her Meadow Pointe home had been vandalized.

Pink paint was splattered on the walls, television, floors, furniture and ceiling, and the walls had been burned.

And that was just the living room.

"It was overwhelming," said Agosto, 43, a single mother of three.

Her 3-year-old daughter's toys had been smashed and stolen. Family pictures, including a sonogram image of 3-year-old Olivia, had been destroyed. Unused condoms were strewn about the house.

Even a military uniform belonging to her 26-year-old daughter, Lisandra Bigler, had been taken.

"I was totally devastated," Agosto said. "I mean, they stole little kids' toys, little exercisers for a baby, and they went out of their way to destroy my military photos."

Today, Agosto is picking through her belongings and starting to clean up the home she bought in 2000.

She holds up a portrait of a unit she once worked with. It's splattered pink. So is a photo of her children she reaches for.

"I always take pictures of my kids before I leave on deployment," she said.

Laptop computers are missing. So is a video camera.

While the newly repainted outside of the house was not touched, slats were broken out of her backyard fence, and many of her belongings wound up in the pond behind her home.

"I still haven't gone through everything," she said. "There are Wiis and Gameboys missing, too."

Today, a team of workers from Graystone Construction Corp. is busy scraping paint off walls, cleaning carpets and disinfecting surfaces. Cleaning up the mess "could take a while," a worker said, and Agosto is hoping her insurance pays for the work, which she was told would cost "way over $15,000."

The vandals urinated and smeared feces on the family's beds and mattresses.

"They even took a dump in the toilet, then shut off the [water] valve so it would smell more," Agosto said.

While the house is being cleaned, Olivia and 13-year-old daughter Katelyn are staying with relatives.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is investigating.

"We aren't releasing any information about that case right now, but we're following up on leads," sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said. He declined to say what the leads are.

Agosto works as an emergency-room nurse through a local medical staffing company that sends her where she is needed. She is scheduled to return to Fort Eustis on Sunday.

A native of Puerto Rico, Agosto said she grew up poor and knows how to overcome adversity. She joined the Army because of the opportunities it offered.

"I was pregnant at 17, and the Army offered me a way to get an education and a career," she said.

Another single mother who'd recently lost her house to foreclosure was supposed to be moving into the house.

"If I see someone who needs help, I help out," Agosto said.

Instead of opening up her home, though, Agosto had an alarm installed yesterday.

"I had it installed yesterday because I didn't really think I needed one before," she said. "I live in such a nice neighborhood."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 731-1239.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT