OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office served an eviction notice to a family Wednesday morning, but when they looked inside the home, an investigation emerged.
Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer, Aaron Brilbeck said deputies showed up to a home on South Youngs to serve a lock out notice because the family hadn’t been paying rent to their landlord.
Locks on the home were to be changed and those living inside were to vacate the premises immediately.
As deputies arrived to the house though, Brilbeck said it was in “deplorable conditions.”
The house is about 760 square feet. Inside the home, deputies found two young girls ages six and seven were sleeping on the couch.
Brilbeck said the couch wasn’t in good condition, saying it wasn’t one someone would want to touch.
Beyond the couch were floors covered in dog urine and feces. Brilbeck explained the children couldn’t sleep in their own bed because they were filled with trash and dog feces.
Deputies found eight dogs living alongside the children.
“When you first walk in the house, it’s like being punched in the face. The smell is just overwhelming. It immediately turns your stomach. The smell primarily of dog feces is just everywhere. Some of it is probably several weeks or several months old. Some of it’s fresh. The carpet is so soaked in urine that it just tears right apart,” said Brilbeck.
Brilbeck compared walking on the carpet to walking on a sponge because of the amount of urine soaked through. He said there were also mice running around the home.
As News 4 rolled up to the house Wednesday afternoon, a family member showed up, asking what had happened at the home.
She told us off camera it was her sister-in-law and brother living in the home.
She knew about the number of dogs living inside the home. She said her brother and sister-in-law weren’t sure what to do with them and certainly didn’t want to put them down.
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She told KFOR she’s disappointed in how this situation unfolded.
Brilbeck added deputies couldn’t find any food in the house and the oven door was broken off so the family could use it to heat the house.
“Everything about it was just horrible. There’s rodent feces all over the appliances, just horrible,” explained Brilbeck.
The two children are safe and staying with a relative.
The Department of Human Services as well as the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating what happened, according to Brilbeck.
“There’s no excuse for this. There’s help out there. There’s rental assistance. There’s assistance with food. There are a lot of churches that are willing to help out. There’s food pantries. There’s no reason for children, especially to be living in conditions like this,”said Brilbeck.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there are no criminal charges against the parents.
Brilbeck said it’s very early into their investigation.