Police responding to a 911 call on July 19 found four men — ages 79, 74, 65 and 54 — being held in “deplorable conditions” behind a door that was nailed shut in a north Houston neighborhood. Sgt. Steven Murdock told the Associated Press that at least one of the men was a military veteran, and that their living conditions were like a “dungeon.”
Murdock said the men told investigators that their Social Security checks were being taken from them, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
At the scene, Houston Sgt. J.W. McCoy told KTRK television: ”One of them seemed to think he was picked up off the street and brought here. In exchange for beer and cigarettes and a place to stay, he had to turn over his Social Security check.”
Three women — a grandmother, mother and daughter — and a man live in the house, the station reports, and one person has been taken into custody.