In May she was listed in the Humane Society’s report, 101 Worst Puppy Mills in the U.S., and was under active investigation by El Dorado County authorities.
The puppy broker was renting a home on Danbury Circle in El Dorado Hills until Sunday, July 6, when the Turks up and left, according to the landlord.
Property owner Jeff Barker said the Turks stiffed him on rent and caused plenty of damage to the property.
He said he learned about Turk’s business, LaChicPuppy.com, from the June 4 Telegraph article.
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| This landlord said she fled, owing him a lot of rent, but he found bank statements where she had collected $200,000 in online payments from idiots buying her sick, dying puppies |
“I found out about all of this from the article,” he said. When he asked the Turks, Ginger and Al, about the allegations, they were silent. “It’s not like I pressed it, but I couldn’t get any information out of them.”
Then they broke their two-year lease agreement but when they vacated the home, they left behind plenty of records related to their business and previous “pay-or-quit” notices from prior landlords.
What Barker found when he gained access to the home was shocking.
“They absolutely demolished the carpet. It was pretty old carpet but I don’t want to spend $10,000 replacing the carpet,” he said. “It’s dog urine. Pulling up the carpet was awful.”
He said the damage went beyond the carpet.
“There were holes in the walls. There was one bedroom and you open the door and there was dog feces and urine all over the floor. There was dog poo in the pantry,” he said. “It was just nasty. It was terrible living conditions.”
The garage was full of the Turks’ belongings.
“My house has a three-car garage and they stuffed it full to the ceiling. They moved in December 2012. It’s full of desks, paperwork and stuff like that. There’s stuff under the house, behind the house. The stuff in the garage isn’t anything of value,” he said. “Looks like they took whatever they could fit into two moving truck loads and left.”
He said there is monetary loss.
“I was stiffed on rent, they didn’t pay water or garbage and all this damage. … I didn’t do my due diligence as a landlord,” he said. “You find all these files they left behind with pay-or-quit notices.”
Barker said he’d like to take them to court if he can track them down.
“Everything I hear is saying it’s just an expensive lesson I’ve learned. I do want to serve them and it goes beyond small claims court. It would be nice to haul them into court,” he said. “This whole time, I took the high road. … I just didn’t see them as the type of people who leave in the middle of the night.”
While he hopes to get some money back, he said his other goal is to protect others.
“More importantly, I think it’s really about keeping them doing this again to another landlord,” he said.
He said he has a simple solution for the mountains of “stuff” the Turks left behind.
“I have a 40-yard garbage receptacle coming,” he said.
Henry Brzezinski, El Dorado County’s chief of Animal Services, couldn’t comment on Turk or any findings at this point.
“The case is still being actively investigated,” he said.
Attempts to contact Ginger Turk were unsuccessful.
(Folsom Telegraph - July 16, 2014)
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