Community Corner

Child Found in "Uninhabitable" House

The 13-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy were not taken away by child protective services.

Piles of boxes, clothes and garbage, strong odors: Living conditions were unsanitary, reported police after visiting a family on Gregory Street.

The two-story, eight-room residence is occupied by a man and woman living with their two young children and a bird. 

On August 5, at 10:45 a.m. police responded to a 911 hang up call. When police called back, a 13-year-old girl picked up the phone and said she was home with her younger sibling. Dispatching officer Michael Mctygue was not comfortable with her response and requested that police check on the children's welfare.

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Officers John Hassett and John Deiulio first responded to the scene. 

When they received no response to their knocking and calling, Detectives Perrotto and Shanahan joined them. Concerned about the safety of the child, Perrotto entered through an unlocked window in the back of the house, and then unlocked the front door. 

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"Once inside the residence, we observed conditions that were not suitable for a child to live in," Hassett reported. "The house was cluttered with excess items, the interior was extremely filthy, stagnant water collected in the sinks and tubs and the kitchen did not appear functional."

Lieutenant Richard Malan said there was running water, but the plumbing was inoperable and described the residence as "extremely filthy."

In addition, the exterior was cluttered with a large amount of debris. 

The resident, Christine Sapka, 67, who works in the physical medicine and rehabilitation field, said the debris was due to renovation done to the house, which started in the beginning of July. She said they were taking stuff out of the attic, sorting things out and renovating the kitchen and the bathrooms. 

She said that she and her kids were not living at the house since renovations started, and that they were staying with friends in Yorktown. She said her husband John had been spending more time at the house to clean it up.

Police said while they were waiting outside that same day, a girl walked down the driveway and identified herself as a resident. She said she had left the house because her "bird needed to go for a walk," and her parents weren't home. 

Sapka said her daughter was at the residence alone for a few hours because she did not want to go with them while they were sorting things out. 

Police said the girl had told them her mother and brother were in Mount Vernon, while her dad was running errands. 

The local branch of Child Protective Services was requested and upon checking the residence, they determined it was "unfit for children to stay," police said. 

Police said the 13-year-old girl and her 9-year-old brother were not taken away from their parents. 

Police advised Yorktown building inspector William Gregory about the conditions at the house. He said there was not much he could do with the interior conditions because the residence was a single-family, owner occupied residence. 

Joe Hughes, code enforcement for the Building Department, said there had been previous complaints against the residence. The first one was in July 2006 about items being dumped alongside the driveway. The second complaint was in June 2008 about trash.

Sapka said they did not take care of the garbage earlier because they wanted to do it all at once. 

She said she agreed with police that the place was dirty, but they were working on cleaning things up. She said 95 percent of the garbage has been removed. 

"When things are habitable, we are going to move in," she said. "It's a possibility."

She added they might not move back and would even try to sell the house. Sapka purchased the house in 1993 for $259,000. Currently, the market value of the house is $481,927, which is subject to change because of the residential assessment ratio. 

Personnel at Child Protective Services could not comment on the status because of confidentiality issues. 

Police said the warning signs of children living in filthy conditions are that they don't look like they are being attended to, they are not going to school, are out in the streets, and in different types of weather they are not wearing the proper clothing. Other signs are their cleanliness, and police said that usually school officials would detect such signs. 


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