Angry Power Washer Goes to Prison for Fecal Vengeance, Chemical Attack

Todd Fries aka Todd Burns

The owner of a power washing company in Tuscon is headed for the big house after exacting some nasty revenge on customers who underpaid him. In 2008, Todd Fries, also known as Todd Burns, was owed $200 by Myles and Karen Levine, whose driveway he had resurfaced. The Levines were unhappy with his work and had him re-do it several times, and did not pay Fries, owner of Burns Power Washing, the remaining $200 of his fee.

On November 1, 2008, the Levines awoke to a gruesome tableau surrounding their house. Feces, packing peanuts, motor oil and grease were all over the driveway. A veritable zoo of dead animals–including a coyote, a rodent and several woodpeckers–were scattered about. A penis, a naked lady and a swastika were painted on the walls and curb, along with the words “Jew whore” and “die Juden bitch.” Karen Levine told police that she knew who did it–Fries, upset over the $200. Initially, because of the anti-Semitic graffiti, police thought the attack was a hate crime against the Jewish couple. In his report, the responding officer wrote that Karen was “speaking in a loud tone, walking rapidly in a back and forth motion, gesturing with her hands and stating ‘I know how did it’ throughout [his] contact with her.”

More than a year later, in 2011, Fries struck again. The Levines had moved to a different neighborhood when ”huge white cloud..enveloped the neighborhood.” Once again, the front of the Levines’ house was covered with grease, feces, dead woodpeckers and other undesirable items. The windows, front door and garage door were sealed shut with insulation foam. The white cloud, and accompanying smell of chlorine, was coming from buckets of chemicals placed in the yard. This time, Fries left another man’s ID at the scene and then later called the FBI pretending to be a Mexican woman to turn in the owner for the ID. Last year, a woman left an angry message on the Burns Power Washing Facebook page, which has a measly 11 likes: “How about you tell me how you got my husband’s ID to leave at the scene of a terrorist attack that was all conducted by you TODD Fries?Burns?”

After his arrest, FBI agents found weapons, recipes for explosives and books about revenge at Fries’ home. Earlier this week, Fries was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for unlawful possession and use of chemical weapons and giving false information to the FBI. Patty Wilson, his former bookkeeper, stood by Fries, claiming that he is innocent and that “the jury was hammered by the government.” The Levines, on the other hand, were pleased with his sentence and told the judge that their lives have changed forever and they now suffer from PTSD.

Slideshow: Gross Misconduct