Michael Dietz had been holding a grudge since August 2023, when he got in an accident with a suburban Cleveland woman. Frustrated with how the case had proceeded, he tracked her down last Thursday and finally got his revenge, along with a chauffeured ride to the local jail.
Westlake police responded to the victim’s home after she saw the damage to her home and vehicle. In several spaces, the word “a**hole” had been spray-painted, albeit misspelled. The woman’s Ring camera footage also showed the man pour sugar in the gas tank of an SUV parked in her driveway, according to the criminal complaint.
He even desecrated her miniature University of Alabama flag anchored in her yard.
“He wrote a lot of words, many of them misspelled on the house itself, plus took time to spray paint the windows,” said Capt. Gerry Vogel of the Westlake Police Department. “If you watch the surveillance video, he even notices the cameras that are there and sprays paint on the cameras.”
After reviewing surveillance footage, the woman and her husband told police the man looked familiar. Then it hit them: It was Michael Dietz, the man with whom the wife had been involved in a car accident more than a year ago.
Police traveled to Dietz’s home to investigate. He was more than happy to confess, telling officers he was “not happy” with the way the crash was handled and added he still suffered from back pain. He said he intended to sue the victim.
“I f***ing spray painted a**hole on her house,” Dietz told Westlake cops, according to body camera video.
“Why?” asked an officer.
“Because she’s an a—hole,” Dietz explained. He also admitted to pouring sugar in the gas tank.
It wasn’t just Dietz’s admissions that landed him in hot water.
Officers noticed a black backpack in the background as they were interviewing Dietz at his home.
“Upon inspection, the bag contained clear plastic gloves, a reusable Giant Eagle grocery bag, sugar residue and a blue funnel. These items are consistent with the tools and evidence left at the scene,” officers wrote in the incident report.
Police arrested Dietz and charged him with felony vandalism.
They added an aggravated menacing charge, a misdemeanor, when Dietz told them on the way to jail, “That b— is lucky I didn’t go over with a .357 and start shooting the place up.”
Police said they were surprised a man Dietz’s age would be arrested for tagging.
“You would expect maybe a kid or a young adult would do something like this,” Vogel told CBS affiliate WOIO. “Not thinking things through fully. But this was a 64-year-old man who should definitely know better.”
