Landlord Jailed After Failing To Make Changes To Suspected Crack House

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A landlord is in jail, after he failed to make changes ordered by a judge.

Neighbors on Constance Street in Spring Garden are celebrating. A longtime suspected crack house has been boarded up and shut down.

The owner, 45-year-old Michael Bucaro is in jail.

"I've lived on this street four about 32 years," a neighbor said. "And boy, that was about the worst – with the last couple years, I'd be going to work at 5-o-clock in the morning and the action going on out there at that time in the morning."

Police say between January 2009 and last December, officers came to the house 59 times. Many were for drug calls, where they found 100 stamped bags of heroin, needles and a crack pipe.

Other times, police responded to drug overdoses on, or near, the property.
The neighbor we spoke to did not want to be identified, but said traffic in and out of the house was nonstop.

"It was just getting so bad, I didn't want my kids to come down and visit me because I was afraid of what was going on," the neighbor said.

A judge ordered Bucaro to pay a $10,000 fine, evict his tenants and board up the house.

When Bucaro didn't make the changes, he was sentenced to six months in jail unless he makes the changes.

Bucaro is currently in the Allegheny County Jail for contempt of court. A judge will decide if the house will be demolished.

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