Future sober living house in Burlington County flooded by vandal

Future sober living home in Marlton flooded by vandal

Plans to open a sober living house in Burlington County were stopped by a vandal who the homeowner says clogged all the drains in the house and let the water run for hours.

MARLTON, N.J. - Plans to open a sober living house in Burlington County were stopped by a vandal who the homeowner says clogged all the drains in the house and let the water run for hours.

The property on Monmouth Green in Marlton is owned by Mark Warner who runs Cayuga Housing. He planned to use the home to help people coming out of addiction find employment, learn to pay bills and budget money to transition on their own.

"I never thought it would actually come to somebody breaking in and vandalizing the home," Warner said. "That morning it became a reality that someone was willing to go to that extent because they don’t agree with what we’re doing in our home."

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Evesham Police posted on its Facebook page that they're looking for information about the crime.

"They flex-sealed our front door shut, they put flex-seal on all the drains and then turned all the water on, so that 500 plus gallons an hour was flooding into our house," Warner said. He estimated that the water was left running for 8 hours.

Inspectors from the state were supposed to come and do a final assessment of the home on Wednesday and residents could start moving in soon after. Now, Werner said it could be weeks before repairs are made.

"A large portion of the community supports what we are doing but the few that don't have been very vocal about it," Warner said.