A federal appeals court has ruled against a Colorado man whod asked for compensation after police destroyed his house while pursuing an armed shoplifting suspect.

Greenwood Village homeowner Leo Lech sued the city after it offered him $5,000 in the aftermath of the 2015 incident. Lech says he had to take out a mortgage to cover the $400,000 cost of razing and rebuilding the structure, which was rendered uninhabitable.

While sympathetic to Lechs situation, the 10th Circuit Court ultimately sided with the lower court, finding police acted within their scope of power to preserve public safety.

The saga dates back to June 2015, when an armed shoplifting suspect named Robert Seacat tried to evade police by stealing a car from the garage of Lechs rental home in the southern Denver suburb.

Alerted by a burglar alarm, police responded to the residence before Seacat could escape, prompting him to barricade himself inside the house. After 19 hours, and after Seacat fired at the officers gathered outside, police responded with an overwhelming show of force: Officers blew up walls with explosives and drove an armored vehicle through the front door; a robot deployed flashbang grenades inside the house; tear gas canisters and 40-millimeter rounds were fired through the windows.

With the house destroyed, Seacat whose run-in with the law began over an accusation of stealing two belts and a shirt from Wal-Mart was arrested and later convicted of 17 felonies.