When 48-year-old Eric Pierwsza’s wife told him that their marriage was over and she had filed for divorce, she didn’t exactly expect a positive reaction, but she also didn’t expect him to literally bring down the house! However, after a night of drinking, the man did just that, using a construction excavator to partially demolish his own property.

Divorces can get messy, but you don’t often hear about people destroying their own houses just because their marriage fell apart. However, one marital dispute in Butler County, Pennsylvania, got so out of hand that the husband used an excavator to partially demolish his own house after hearing that his wife wanted to divorce him.

We’ll probably never know exactly what prompted Eric Pierwsza’s extreme reaction to his wife’s divorce filing, but according to CBS News, it occurred after a night of drinking. After allegedly telling his wife, “If it’s over, I’ll tear the house down,” the 48-year-old man climbed into an excavator and started tearing down chunks of the house.

Shockingly, the man’s wife and two daughters were still inside the home while he was tearing into it with the construction machinery, and sounds of the demolition could be heard during the spouse’s desperate 911 call. Luckily, they were not injured.

After destroying the back of his family’s house, Pierwsza allegedly went inside, took his gym bag, and went into town, where he was apprehended by police and taken into custody. He now faces several legal charges, including causing a catastrophe, reckless endangerment, and disorderly conduct.

Although the damage done to the house doesn’t look irreparable, investigators told reporters that the structural damage was so severe that the whole place will probably need to be demolished for safety reasons.