Wisconsin police discovered six children locked inside a storage unit early Tuesday morning, leading to the arrest of two adults.
Milwaukee Police Department officers responded to a report of children trapped inside a container at a StorSafe facility around 1:30 a.m., reported local ABC affiliate WISN. Inside the unit, they found six children, ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years old.
None of the children were harmed, police said, but they’d been left completely alone. They’ve since been turned over to the care of Child Protective Services.
A 26-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man were arrested in connection with the case. Police did not disclose the relationship between the suspects and the children, nor what circumstances led to them being locked in the storage unit alone.
An investigation into the case, described as a child abuse/neglect incident, remains ongoing. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office will review the charges.
“I’m confused. I don’t even know how to respond to it,” a man from the area told WISN. “Why would anyone keep six kids in a storage unit? To me, this sounds like a cry for help maybe, or maybe they just needed help and didn’t know how to get it.”
A woman who wished to remain anonymous told NBC affiliate TMJ4 that she’d seen what looked like a family going into the storage unit at night and leaving in the morning since early this summer.
Roughly 24% of homeless services organizations have recorded clients who have lived or currently live in a storage unit, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
