The Classen Apartment Residents Demand Answers After Water Damage On Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a rude awakening for residents at an upscale Oklahoma City apartment complex who woke up to an indoor downpour. 

The Classen apartment tower, near Northwest 23rd and Western, had a pipe burst and sent water shooting from the ceilings.  

“The residents are fed up with how we’ve been treated,” Josiah Stutzman, who lives at The Classen, said.  

The message on the website of The Classen apartments advertises, “the uptown OKC experience.” Stutzman disagrees. 

“It’s supposed to be luxury apartments,” Stutzman said. “It’s not luxury.” 

Sometimes what lies beneath the surface is far from glamorous. 

At around 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Stutzman said water started coming out of the ceiling inside the lobby of the building. 

“We heard the fire trucks coming,” Stutzman said. 

A person can imagine the reaction Stutzman had. “Oh crap,” he said. 

The video Stutzman recorded shows water rushing onto the floor. 

“The retail shops were flooding,” Stutzman said. 

The flooding paused his holiday. Christmas presents inside his apartment still sit unopened.  

“It’s just stressful you know? Supposed to be Christmas,” Stutzman said. 

Stutzman has already been through a home catastrophe.  

“Cause we had a house fire,” Stutzman said. 

An unattended candle in his previous home is the reason his wife and four children live inside The Classen now. 

“The candle caught the laundry on fire,” Stutzman said. 

It’s what followed Dec. 24 that has Stutzman talking. 

“We told it to the property manager,” Stutzman said. “She totally ignored us.” 

Stutzman said the property manager had no plan to evacuate residents and blocked his number. She was unavailable when News 9 called to ask questions on Monday. 

With a $3,000 a month rent bill, residents are asking where their money is going, when the Classen website told them they’d get the uptown Oklahoma City experience. 

“We’re not getting what we’re paying for,” Stutzman said.