‘I only thought something like this happens in movies’: Community helps clean up trashed home

WATCH ABOVE: After showing the damage renters left in a Lethbridge home, Erik Mikkelsen caught up with the homeowner and volunteers helping to clean up the mess.

LETHBRIDGE – It’s a landlords nightmare. A north side Lethbridge rental home was left in complete destruction.

Broken glass, holes in the walls, empty liquor bottles, drug paraphernalia and more, all left for Timothy Pearce to clean up, or so he thought.

Global News caught up with Pearce on January 6 to show the damage to the property. He says the response that followed was a total surprise.

WATCH: ‘I was almost brought to tears, how could someone do this’: Landlord’s property destroyed by rogue renters

“Once he aired that, that night I’d received just a large vast amount of messages, and support from not only friends and family, but just individuals in the community,” said Pearce. “Lots of people asking if they could help.”

And help, they did. Volunteers showed up early Saturday morning and got to work cleaning up the damage.

Others put on their gloves are started to sanitize every inch of the home.

Some volunteers like Trevor Stuart have known Pearce for a number of years, while some didn’t know him at all. One thing in common is the shock they had walking into the trashed home.

“It was just horrible, it was gross!” said Stuart. “How does somebody do this, and where is their respect for anyone’s stuff?”

“We know there’s people out there like that, but then there’s a whole bunch of people that get together to help. This house is full of volunteers right now.”

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Sarah Fika heard about the damage on Facebook and was quick to offer help in any way she could.

“I could not imagine anyone doing this,” said Fika. “This is a disaster. The people who lived in my house before us didn’t clean up as well as we wanted, but it’s way cleaner than what this house is.”

While most of the $14,000 damage still needs to be repaired by contractors, the house is on it’s way back to normal.

“I only thought something like this happens in movies,” said Pearce. “Where communities and individuals come together and support each other without asking for anything  in return. It’s just touched me so much.”