Two weeks before a Christmas spent in Iraq, Minnesota National Guardsman John Paul Kieser checked the inbox on his e-mail. One was a message from his wife, Dana, with a new address in Fargo, N.D.

"The remaining messages," Mr. Kieser told police, "were from family members to call immediately."

What police in Maplewood, Minn., later pieced together was this:

Before deploying for active duty in Iraq, John Kieser did what the military routinely advises deploying soldiers to do: appoint an agent under power of attorney to handle his affairs in the event he became incapacitated.

On Sept. 11, 2005, Mr. Kieser filled out a military power of attorney. Like other powers of attorney, it grants sweeping powers to buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, and otherwise carry out financial and legal matters back home for people who can't be there. It mentioned the family home at 1821 Onacrest Court, in Maplewood.

"I thought I had precautions in place," Mr. Kieser said.

Military powers of attorney hold the same powers in any given state -- something often needed for military families that find themselves stationed around the country in the course of a career. Mr. Kieser's power of attorney was known as a "springing" power of attorney -- one that springs to life when a certain set of conditions are met.

This was the wording: "This power of attorney shall take effect upon my becoming physically disabled, mentally incompetent or otherwise incapacitated. Any third party may rely upon the written declaration of my attorney-in-fact that such contingency has occurred."

An "attorney-in-fact" is another term for the agent designated to act under power of attorney. In this case, John Kieser chose his wife of six years, Dana.

John Kieser was in Iraq on Aug. 11 of last year when his wife used the language of that power of attorney and declared that her husband was incapacitated. Three days later she closed out his individual retirement account at Pioneer Investments, taking more than $25,000 and sticking him with IRS penalties for the early withdrawal. From their Wells Fargo mortgage account she took $2,178.46. From a savings account at Putnam Investments, she withdrew the total -- $2,794.60.

On each of the checks, she signed his name, hers and next to it "POA" -- power of attorney.

All the time Dana Kieser was cashing whatever of his investments she could reach, John Kieser had no idea the power of attorney had been put into use. They continued to communicate.

It wasn't until December that he got word the house had been sold.

Dana Kieser e-mailed her husband in mid-December, explaining her theory of the law.

"You do realize that being on the other side of the world constitutes 'lack of capacity' -- you are not capable of doing something because you are 5,000 miles away ... it doesn't just mean that you lost both arms and can't write," she told him.

Pointedly, she mentioned the inclusion in the power of attorney of the language authorizing the sale of the house -- language John Kieser believed was there simply in the event he was wounded or worse, and his wife needed to sell the home.

"You signed that paper," she wrote to him. "You specifically have one whole paragraph about me selling the house. You put it in writing that I can sell the house and then you call the cops. ..."

A month later, she filed for divorce.

Dana Kieser's interpretation of "incapacitated" actually has support in Minnesota law. Incapacity is defined by statute, which includes the predicament of being "missing, detained or unable to return to the United States."

Mr. Kieser, on the other hand, told police he did not regard himself as incapacitated and was capable of making his own decisions.

Mrs. Kieser professed not to understand what all the fuss was about.

"You don't have jurisdiction in this," she told the Maplewood police when they phoned her to ask about the house.

Later, she left a recorded message on the telephone of Officer Michael Dugas at the Maplewood Police Department:

"Yes, Hi. This is Dana Kieser ... I'm not quite sure what you are doing involved in this but and maybe John did not explain to you that I do have power of attorney. It is a legitimate power of attorney and I've been advised that is all you need to know ... ."

In fact, it was all anyone needed to know when she sold the family home. She drafted a document activating the power of attorney saying that Mr. Kieser "lacks the capacity to manage property, including the capacity to take actions necessary to administer real and personal property, intangible property, business property, benefits and income."

She was never required to produce additional evidence of this incapacity, or even describe it in detail. An Army Judge Advocate General's attorney advised Maplewood Police that being in Iraq doesn't constitute incapacity to handle personal affairs. But the definition of what constitutes incapacity was never written into the document from which she drew her powers.

In May, Dana Kieser was charged with two counts of forgery, connected to the checks on which she signed her husband's name as well as her own.

But the local district attorney did not bring charges in the sale of the house, citing the fact that she was partial owner. The power of attorney provided the means to sell the part belonging to John Kieser.

Mr. Kieser, still on active duty, is now waiting for the courts to sort through the financial tangle.

"I believe things will be made right in a year or two in criminal and civil courts," he said. "My suggestion to others is to include two separate relatives as executors of a POA. As in my case, I should have included my father as co-executor of POA along with my wife.

"I did trust my spouse."