I spent my own money installing water-level sensors throughout the creek system, connected to a text-alert network for the residents. I met with Fire Chief Rodriguez to organize evacuation routes.
Meanwhile, Dexter was getting desperate. My lawyer had subpoenaed the HOA’s bank records, and the financial trail was damning. Dexter had embezzled over $180,000 in HOA funds through fake landscaping and legal consulting shell companies to fund his resort project.
I caught him at midnight behind the community center, frantically feeding three years of financial records into an industrial paper shredder. I filmed him through the window and called the police. Smart criminals destroy evidence quietly. Arrogant ones leave a mess.
But Dexter was like a rabid dog backed into a corner. If he couldn’t steal my land legally, he decided to destroy it illegally and claim it was an accident.
On Sunday night, my trail cameras pinged my phone. The HD infrared footage was crystal clear. It showed Dexter’s brother-in-law and two other men wading into the freezing water at the base of my dam, swinging sledgehammers against the 100-year-old limestone.
