Kendall Strobel-Nieft appears before Outagamie County court via Zoom. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Kendall Strobel-Nieft was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for going into homes under construction in Kaukauna, turning on the water and leaving. She was ordered to pay restitution of $244,454.49.
Strobel-Nieft, 41, was previously convicted of two counts of burglary and two counts of criminal damage to property.
Before the sentence was issued, Strobel-Nieft apologized.
“I truly am sorry for the decisions that I made… I know I put a lot of burdens on my family, on myself, and every person that put any time into building those houses. They took months to build those houses. And I went in and, basically, slapped their face and took it down quicker than what they could put it up. And I do feel lots of guilt. I wish I would have taken time to think it through ahead of time,” she said.
She was also placed on extended supervision for two years, and then six years of probation by Judge Mark Schroeder. The $25,000 cash bond which had been posted was ordered forfeited and will go towards restitution payments.
According to the criminal complaint, Strobel-Nieft told police “she never got in trouble as a young woman and this made her feel something she hasn’t felt before.”
At a previous hearing, a prosecutor described the allegations:
“The allegations here are that Miss Strobel-Nieft entered residences that were nearly done being constructed. She would turn on the water in the sinks and showers, and manipulate them so that the water would fall out of the various faucet area, flooding the houses. This resulted in significant damage to these various houses and wasted hundreds of thousands of gallons of water,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Dryak said at the initial appearance.
According to the criminal complaint, Strobel-Nieft initially told police she was looking at homes to get ideas for remodeling or building a new house.
“However, she eventually admitted that she went into homes and had turned on the water Ms. Strobel-Nieft was able to confirm that she had entered the residences and turned on the water, and position the water to flood the house, causing damage to the homes. Ms. Strobel-Nieft admitted to Detectives that the sole purpose of entering the homes was to damage them by turning on the water. Ms. Strobel-Nieft said she never got in trouble as a young woman and this made her feel something she hasn’t felt before. Ms. Strobel-Nieft would also go on to admit that she went into over 20 homes, and the amount and dates of entering them started to blend together. She noted that in each case, if the water was turned on, she would leave it on to cause damage to the homes, but some of them did not have the water turned on,” the complaint states.
In a social media post, Kaukauna police estimated the total damage at more than $230,000.
The incidents happened between June 2021 and July 2024.
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