Were they in foreclosure? Lots of people who are pull this stunt. If I can’t have it no EEEEEEEEVIL bank can have it either. I know a guy whose cousin is in jail for doing it.
Back in the mid-1990s....we had a upscale hotel in the village (Sembach, Germany). Gal who owned it....bought it with expectations of growing it, and never achieved anything. One night around Xmas....it burned to the ground. Cops got called in and barely took two weeks to establish that she did it. I think that she got a year or two in prison....total loss. Business was so bad....she couldn’t even sell the place.