A soldier from Pasco County who fell victim to two unwelcome people living in his New Port Richey house returned home Wednesday to a pleasant surprise.
U.S. Army Specialist Michael Sharkey and his family found his once-trashed home spruced up by volunteers and fellow veterans.
"I was expecting to come back to a disaster from what I saw and what I heard. And I wasn't expecting anything like this,” said Sharkey after getting a glimpse of his newly remodeled home.
Sharkey was deployed in Afghanistan when a man he doesn't know moved into his home on the 6800 block of Westend Avenue and refused to leave. When TV crews confronted Julio Ortiz in the front yard, he cited a verbal contract with a woman who told him he could live there.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office got involved, but deputies said their hands were tied because Ortiz had been living in the home since September 2012. Sharkey had put the home in the care of a woman named Lisa Pettus, the sheriff's office said.
In an open letter to another local TV station, Pettus said the home had fallen into disrepair and she had commissioned Ortiz to install cabinets, counter tops, a sink and a refrigerator.
She said she drove by one day and noticed cars parked outside. She said she found Ortiz living there with his girlfriend, Fatima Cardoso, and the locks had been changed. Ortiz was even getting mail delivered there.
Deputies tried to intervene last December, but Ortiz wouldn't let them onto the property. Ortiz claimed he had a verbal agreement with Pettus that let him live there rent-free in exchange for his renovation work.
Deputies said they couldn't consider Ortiz a squatter because they needed evidence he wasn't supposed to be there. And they didn't have the legal authority to do anything.
"All I wanted was them out and the house boarded up and I was going to work on it here and there and try to get it back to being livable,” Sharkey said.
But veterans groups form around the area took action. One threatened a motorcycle gang-style intimidation in front of the house, and another had an attorney draft an ejection order that got Ortiz out of the home almost immediately.
Detectives were then able to investigate and found the home in bad shape. They also discovered that Ortiz had been siphoning electricity from nearby homes, the sheriff's office said. Ortiz was charged with grand theft.
Cardoso was charged with violating probation because she has 21 arrests, including felonies, and was in a home with illegal activity occurring. Ortiz and Cardoso were both arrested in late April.
A group called Veteran Warriors headed up an effort to clean up and renovate the home. Community volunteers donated their time and skills, and local businesses donated materials for the repairs.
Workers even put in new sod and landscaping.
"This is the house that I raised my family in,” he said. “My boys grew up here. My daughter grew up here also. We lived here for 16 years."
Sharkey said he will now be stationed in Savannah, Georgia. His wife, Danielle said thanks to the remodeling of their home, the family will be able to stay here in the meantime, and be closer to her mother.