CHICAGO (AFP) – Four elderly men were reportedly held captive in a trash-filled Texas garage for as long as a decade, local media reported Friday.
“One of them seemed to think he was picked up off the street and brought here,” Houston Police Sergeant JW McCoy told KTRK news.
“In exchange for beer and cigarettes and a place to stay, he had to turn over his Social Security check.”
The men were found locked inside a “prison room” with no beds or chairs and a door that was nailed shut.
They were freed after police got a call about several people being held against their will.
Authorities gave the ages of the men as 79, 54, 74 and about 65.
Three of the men were unable to walk and were taken to hospital. The fourth, who was in better shape, sat calmly on the stoop as news crews gathered nearby.
He told KTRX that he had been staying there for about six months and had no desire to leave despite the poor conditions.
One of the other men told police he’d been there for 10 years.
A man who lived in the house was taken into police custody. Three women also lived there, the station reported.
Neighbor Robert Paris told the Houston Chronicle that he hadn’t noticed any elderly men coming and going in the three months he’d lived across the street.
“It’s pretty weird,” he told the paper. “It’s really bad news.”
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