Now why didn't I think of this while I was a kid?
Owner discovered 200 people in home
By Irene McCormack Jackson and Amy Oakes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
October 6, 2002
CHULA VISTA – It wasn't the housewarming party homeowner Joaquin Farfan wanted.
Farfan stopped by his new, still-vacant $400,000 home in Otay Ranch recently and found lights on and doors and windows open. Inside a DJ was spinning hip-hop tunes on top of the kitchen island, a keg was in the corner and about 200 young people were dancing, drinking and frolicking throughout his two-story home.
"I was shocked," Farfan said Friday from his still-empty living room. "I told them to get . . . out of my house."
That was on Sept. 20, less than 12 hours after the Farfans got the keys to their five-bedroom, three-car garage home on Lost Arrow Place. It also was just days after Farfan and his wife's 11th anniversary.
"This has taken a toll on us emotionally," Farfan said.
Since then, police investigators have been able to track down several of the youths they believe are responsible for organizing the house party that caused $15,000 in damages, and a developer has put the homeowners' association on alert.
Lt. Tro Peltekian said detectives started their investigation with a small flier they found at the house. It advertised a two-keg party that night with entrance fees for guys at $3 and girls at $2. If the girls drank two shots at the door, they would be admitted free.
The flier also listed the party a "Playaz Club Productionz" and gave a phone number to obtain a location. A woman who answered the number Friday said she did not know anything about the party.
Several area high schools students have been interviewed and others are going to be contacted, Peltekian said. Police are treating the incident as felony vandalism, he said.
According to detectives, the flier was distributed the day before and the day of the party. Police said the party took some planning.
Farfan said he received the keys to the house at 11 a.m. that day. Family and friends came over for a while to see the place. His wife and three children were the last to leave at about 7:40 p.m.
Worried that she didn't leave any lights on, Noemi Farfan called her husband at work and asked him to check the house. That was at about 10:15 p.m.
"When I turned the corner, I saw maybe 100 cars parked outside," Farfan said. "I figured there was a big party but didn't know it was at my house."
Farfan said he thinks his house was chosen because it was vacant and on a quiet cul-de-sac. At the time, only one person lived there, and Farfan said the neighbor was told by the kids that it was their uncle's house.
"They actually invited him over," Farfan said.
After he kicked everyone out of his house, Farfan said, he saw that the screens had been kicked from the windows, bottles and red plastic cups were scattered about, and there was blood splattered on the counter tops. The wood floors were scuffed and dirty and the carpets stained with party debris. A stroller for Farfan's daughter – one of the few signs that someone had moved in – was thrown in a closet.
The home builder, RWR Co., replaced the screens, patched a hole in a wall and cleaned the carpets, Farfan said.
"In reality, they didn't have to do anything, so that kept my spirits up," he said.
Farfan said he is waiting for his insurance company to determine the damage. He wants the floors and carpets replaced. Until then, he and his family will stay in their rented home in Bonita.
Gail Crocenzi, marketing director for Otay Ranch Co., said this type of incident has never happened in the 3-year-old master-planned community.
"This is an isolated case as far as we're concerned," she said.
But the developer is working with homeowner associations to establish Neighborhood Watch programs similar to ones in other parts of the community, she said.
Police said this was the first time officers have been called to break up a party at a vacant new house.
"As we started looking into this, we've come to believe it might have been occurring for some time (at different vacant homes), but people probably never notified police before," Peltekian said.
San Diego Police Officer Carla Carigman, who works in the city's Northeastern division, said a majority of the housing subdivisions under construction in northern San Diego have security guards patrolling the grounds. The division hasn't had been told of any parties at vacant homes.
"In one sense you don't want to publicize this because you don't want people to get the idea and you don't want to encourage it," Peltekian said. "But at the same time we want people in these newer developments to know about it because if you see something like this, it might not necessarily be a housewarming party."
Farfan said he wants people to know about the party. He carries several of the fliers in his car. He doesn't want to move in until everything is back to the way it was, even if that means waiting until late November.
"People should know about this," he said. "It's obviously something that could happen on any given weekend."
If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it?
-Stephen King
