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Shackled kids’ dad fought to keep muscle car in bankruptcy

The cruel California couple accused of imprisoning and starving their 13 children were dogged by years of debt — but that didn’t stop the dad from clinging to his brand-new muscle car when the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

David and Lousie Turpin, who are accused of chaining up some of their 13 kids inside a dark and dirty suburban home, listed a total $150,000 in assets and $240,000 in liabilities when they sought bankruptcy protection.

But despite drowning in bills, David fought to keep his precious 2010 Ford Mustang. When the judge asked him how he was still making payments on the vehicle — one of three cars the family owned — the dad replied, “We started using coupons and being more conservative in our spending.” He also said the couple found “better coverage on medical insurance and better rate on auto insurance,” according to court papers.

The judge eventually ruled that keeping the sports car “was not in the best interest of the debtor,” filings show.

The family had been plagued by debt for years, fleeing Texas after foreclosures on their farm and doublewide trailer for the West Coast, where David briefly landed a lucrative job as an engineer at defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

Wells Fargo seized the family’s Rio Vista, Texas, farm in 1999 because of an outstanding $40,000 mortgage. Five years later, their mobile home was repossessed.

But the bankruptcy records reveal that the pair achieved a seemingly normal middle-class life in Murrieta, Ca., for at least a year before David Turpin lost his job at Lockheed Martin in 2010.

During that time, Turpin worked the second shift earning more than $11,000 a month. His wife was listed in papers as “a homemaker.” The couple had a full slate of benefits and saved over $80,000 in a 401k, records show.

They claimed to spend $2,500 a month on food for their family of 15 and amassed a DVD collection worth $500.

But after leaving Lockheed, the David became crushed under a pile of credit-card and department-store debt.

A dozen collection agencies pursued him for debts, including $700 in unpaid medical bills and a $400 pest-control invoice.

The bankruptcy documents catalogue the couple’s brood as “Son, Son, Daughter, Daughter, Daughter, 11, Son, Son 15, 19, 17, 13, 12, Daughter, 10, 9.”