When David Jessen was away from his rural farm home in Central California, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department called to tell him someone had broken in. Several hours later he would return to find his home destroyed after a SWAT team, two helicopters, a K-9 unit and a fire truck barreled toward his front lawn to arrest the burglar. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Fresno County and the city of Clovis are not liable because the damage to their home in 2016 was caused by officers’ “discretionary acts,” reports Courthouse News Service.

Jessen and his wife filed a lawsuit, alleging that police found their home the perfect setting for a training exercise because there would be no nearby neighbors who would watch the SWAT team and helicopters converge. The man in the home threatened to shoot anyone who entered. Police ripped out several wrought iron doors, according to the complaint, and pulled out a wall off the foundation, tear-gassed six rooms, shattered a glass sliding door, broke several windows and 90 feet of fencing and flash-bombed two more rooms. The Jessens say the intruder, Chanley Un, stole an ice cream bar, some milk and half a tomato. The appeals court said the Jessens could not prove that the two police departments who arrived at their home to arrest the barricaded man did not have the proper training.