A Philadelphia couple is facing criminal charges, after being arrested, when their 6-year old son was found locked inside a dog cage within their home.
According to the Philadelphia Police Department, Michelle Campbell, 30, and Paul Weber, 31, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering a person.
Campbell and Weber’s bail was set at $22,500.
A neighbor stated, “I called the police around 1 p.m. on Thursday after I saw two girls, 4 and 5 years old, partially clothed and wandering outside in their backyard while it was raining.”
“They have pampers on. They have no shirts. They have no pants. They have no shoes. They’re screaming. It’s raining. It’s cold. They’re screaming for their mother, their father,” the neighbor added.
Police said in a statement that they arrived on the scene on the 4200 block of Glenview Street and found the two girls crying in the back of the house. They entered the property, where they found another child, a 6-year-old boy, locked in a dog cage by a zip tie. The boy had been naked, with only a blanket and pillow kept inside the cage.
All three children were secured and transported to St. Christopher’s Hospital for evaluation. The children will be placed under the care of the state’s Department of Human Services.
“We don’t know entirely everything that’s going on here,” Philadelphia Police Public Information Officer Eric Gripp said. “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.”
An elderly woman and a 40-year-old man, whom police have identified as the kids’ grandparents and uncle, were also found in the home, and two other children resided at the home but had been at school at the time.
Sources say the uncle and the boy have intellectual disabilities.
“This has been an ongoing situation,” the next-door neighbor said. “These kids have mental issues. Everybody in the neighborhood knows about it. Cops have been coming here on and off. Nothing has ever been done.”
The Department of Human Services said, “Due to State confidentiality laws, DHS cannot comment whether or not a family has any current or past DHS involvement.”
Another neighbor, Tom McNamee, said, “I was horrified when I heard what happened. It’s horrifying… they’re kids. I have grandkids and my own kids, when you find out the details, I don’t know how a parent can let somebody do this.”
