March 24, 2023 Two girls standing in the rain wearing diapers and shirts led Philadelphia police officers inside a home where they found a boy with developmental disabilities locked in a dog cage.
By Chris Mautner Source pennlive.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Police in Philadelphia are investigating after a 6-year-old boy was found naked in a locked dog cage in a home in the city on Thursday, according to reports from NBC10 and 6ABC.
Hector Perez, a neighbor, told the news outlets he called the police after seeing two young girls standing in the rain partially clothed in the backyard of a house along the 4200 block of Glenview Street at about 1 p.m.
“They have Pampers on. They have no shirts, no pants, they have no shoes. They’re screaming, it’s raining, it’s cold. They’re screaming for their mother and father,” Perez said to 6ABC.
When police arrived at the house they said they discovered the boy locked in the cage.
“When officers arrived on the block, they saw two girls, ages 4 and 5, that were partially dressed outside in the rain. The officers were able to pick them up and gain entry inside the property. Once they got in there they came upon a 6-year-old that was locked inside of a dog cage,” Sgt. Eric Gripp told 6ABC.
An elderly woman in a wheelchair was also inside the home as well as a 40-year-old man. The woman was taken away in an ambulance around 6 p.m.
Police also spoke to a woman who they said was the mother of at least one of the children. She was taken in for questioning but has not been charged with anything.
None of the children appeared to be physically harmed, NBC10 reported, but were taken to a local hospital to be evaluated. Two other children live at the home but were at school when the police arrived.
Both the boy and the 40-year-old man, believed to be an uncle, have developmental disabilities, 6ABC said, citing sources.
“We don’t know entirely everything that’s going on here,” Gripp said to NBC10. “We have a long investigation ahead of us. But obviously we don’t live in a world where under any situation whatsoever we should have a child inside of a cage or young children outside standing in the rain.”