Burglars Wreck Tulsa Home Several Times, Long-Time Owners Frustrated

A Tulsa family is rebuilding a home that's been in their family for more than half a century.

But, they said they've had setback after setback because some homeless people have broken into, vandalized, and burglarized it.

Josh Renshaw said a number of homeless people hang out near and on his property on Gilcrease Musuem Road.

He also said they scared off his renter, then broke in and stole his air conditioning unit and wiring.

Shannon Douglass's father built this home on Gilcrease Museum Road in 1959, and says it's heartbreaking to see it destroyed.

"I grew up here, my kids grew up here, my grandkids grew up here, so it means a lot to me.” Douglass said. “It means an awful lot to me and when you walk in here and you see the destruction it hurts, it hurts a lot."

Shannon's grandson Josh Renshaw has been taking care of the home and says homeless people have made the property unsafe.

"They break into the house steal the electrical, stole my air conditioner unit, cause a lot of damage, they sleep under the carport, sleep here on the front porch, wreck the backyard and sleep there, they leave trash everywhere. I have to constantly pick it up, the graffiti in my house, they break the windows it’s, it's just gotten hard," Renshaw said.

Douglass doesn't understand why people do such things

"It's been horrible, it really has, when we first came in here when after we found out what had been done here at first you get mad at those people, they came but they didn't have to destroy everything," Douglass said.

Renshaw now needs to do a lot of repairs in order to rent out the house again.

"This is horrible this is not what this house was, this house was filled with love and to see it destroyed it's hard it really is hard," he said.

Josh said he's called the Tulsa Police non-emergency line eight times since July to report these problems.

Police say they can't track non-emergency calls, but they do have a record of him reporting the issues last month.