A Florida handyman is accused of invading a residence he had previously worked at repairing hurricane damage, and violently assaulting the homeowners.
Florida handyman terrorizes couple
Authorities in Pinellas County say 57-year-old Steven Houpt, a local handyman, is accused of storming into a couple’s home, binding the fiancée inside, and lying in ambush with weapons until her partner returned.
What followed was a brutal fight for survival that ended with the couple injured and Houpt behind bars.
According to court filings, Houpt now faces an array of charges, including home invasion robbery with a weapon, two counts of aggravated battery involving a deadly weapon, and false imprisonment.
The terrifying ordeal unfolded last week in Pinellas Park, Florida. Investigators say McKenzie Bray was home alone when Houpt showed up at her door.
Police allege Houpt forced his way past her, struck her in the head, and restrained her before positioning himself to confront her fiancé, James Allen, when he returned.
When Allen walked into his own home, police say Houpt lunged at him with a screwdriver and a knife, stabbing him several times in the struggle.
But despite the surprise attack, Allen managed to fight back and save his fiancé’s life.
“He had her tied up, taped up on the bed,” Allen told WFLA after the incident.
“Then he wanted to knock me out when I got home and tie us up and take our money.”
Allen described how he was attacked, but turned the tables on his former handyman.
“He stabbed me in the eye with a screwdriver and then in the hand with a knife,” he explained. “I took his knife from him and started stabbing him.”
Homeowner fights off Florida handyman
By the time officers stormed the residence, they found Bray and Allen battered but alive.
Houpt, too, was on the floor of the living room suffering from stab wounds of his own.
Paramedics treated the engaged couple for what police described as non-life-threatening injuries.
Houpt, stabilized at the hospital, was later arrested and booked into the Pinellas County Jail. He is scheduled for his first court appearance Thursday.
In a chilling twist, the victims said they actually knew Houpt before the invasion.
He wasn’t a stranger, he was someone they had trusted inside their home before.
“He did a little bit of work for us, fixing up damage done by hurricanes and just trying to get the house in better shape,” Bray explained.
Neighbors speculated Houpt may have planned the ambush carefully. Power in the area had gone out for several hours that same afternoon, disabling home surveillance systems and leaving residents especially vulnerable.
Court records reveal Houpt was no stranger to the law. Florida Department of Corrections documents show he previously served time, including a 2017 sentence of three years in prison for burglary.
He was released from jail less than a day before the home invasion, after prosecutors dropped felony drug charges against him.
Houpt had been found with three other men in possession of meth and fentanyl, while squatting inside an abandoned home.
He and the other men were all charged with drug possession and burglary at the time.
Violent home invasions plague the nation
The Pinellas Park case is part of a growing string of violent home invasion incidents across the U.S. — many ending with homeowners forced to take matters into their own hands.
Just last weekend, a mother in Joliet, Illinois, hid her baby in a closet before shooting and killing a burglar who stormed her home.
Police say the intruder burst into her bedroom armed with a screwdriver. She fired a single shot to the head, killing him instantly.
The unidentified suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
Earlier this month in Kanawha County, West Virginia, another armed trespasser met deadly force after a homeowner discovered him inside a secondary residence.
“That individual came to the door and met the homeowner at the doorway and the individual had several weapons on him,” Sgt. Joshua Lester of the Sheriff’s Department explained.
A struggle broke out before the homeowner fatally shot the armed man.
And in late July, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident survived his own harrowing break-in.
Police say multiple armed suspects wearing ski masks stormed into his home.
The homeowner fought back with gunfire before escaping through a window and calling 911.
While the suspects fled, one of them, identified as 23-year-old Anthony Baeza, was later found nearby suffering from gunshot wounds.
Baeza actually called 911 himself to report that he had been shot and needed emergency assistance.
He was taken to a local hospital and treated for critical injuries. Police believe he was shot by the homeowner during the robbery.
Baeza has since been charged with burglary of a habitation.
