Two children found living in a 5-by-10-foot unit at a storage facility in New Jersey had been staying there with their mother for about a month, authorities said Friday.
Their mother, Sheena Johnson, 27, was arrested Thursday in Trenton on allegations that she slashed her ex-boyfriend's tires.
As part of routine questioning in arrests involving domestic violence, police asked Johnson if she had any dependents and if so, where they were staying.
Cramped living conditions: Two children found living in a 5-by-10-foot unit at a storage facility in New Jersey, pictured, had been staying there with their mother for about a month, authorities said Friday
Trenton Police Lieutenant Mark Kieffer said an officer became suspicious when Johnson began to respond evasively.
The woman told police she had two children, ages 5 and 10, and they were waiting for a bus with another person near a storage facility where she had rented a unit.
The officer drove to the facility in nearby Ewing and demanded the locker be opened. At first, no one would let him in without a search warrant.
Then he told them there might be children inside, Kieffer said.
When the officer opened the door, he found the children, along with a bare mattress, garbage bags filled with clothes, a suitcase, a backpack and other items strewn around the locker.
‘It was deplorable conditions,’ Kieffer said.
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Police said the children were examined at a hospital and found to be unharmed. They are now in state custody.
Johnson was charged with child endangerment by Ewing police. She also faces charges of criminal mischief, domestic violence and violating a restraining order over her arrest in Trenton.
Ewing Police Detective Sergeant John Stemler said one of his officers went to a nearby McDonald's to buy each child a Happy Meal.
Stemler could not say what the children told police because their statements are part of the investigation. He said the storage facility is not being investigated.
A unit that size at the Ewing location costs up to $70 a month, according to its website.
Stemler was unaware of any past incidents where people were found living in the units.
Police discovered the boys on Thursday surrounded by their worldly possessions in the Extra Space Storage Facility in Ewing, near Trenton, New Jersey, after their mother told them they were there.
Officers were stunned to find the pair had been living in the 'filthy' unit amid old plastic bags, suit cases and lawn furniture, with just a bare mattress on the floor to sleep on.
'Horrible conditions': The Extra Space Storage Facility in Ewing, near Trenton, New Jersey, where two boys were found living in a five-foot by ten-foot unit after their mother was arrested
The two boys are now in protective custody with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families. There is as yet no word on how long they had been living there.
Trenton and Ewing police went to the storage company on the 1400 block of Prospect Street in Ewing at 10.40am yesterday morning, following their mother's arrest for allegedly slashing the tyres on her boyfriend's car.
Following procedure for domestic violence incidents, police asked Sheena Johnson if she had any dependants and it was then that she revealed her family's desperate living situation.
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Police discovered her 5-year-old and 10-year-old sons living inside the five-foot by ten-foot unheated unit on the third floor of the the Extra Space Storage facility.
'They were living in horrible conditions,' Lieutenant Mark Kieffer of the Trenton Police told The Trentonian. He added to NJ.com: 'That's where their house is - that's where they're living. It was just filthy in there.'
Both boys were dirty but uninjured and did not appear to be malnourished. Nevertheless, they were hungry and officers bought them McDonald's Happy Meals before leading them out of the facility.
They were reportedly taken for check ups at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center before being released in the care of social services.
Lieutenant Kieffer said that it was likely that Johnson had been living their with the two children but had left them inside when she went out to Trenton yesterday morning.
She was arrested there after allegedly slashing the tyres on Calhoun Street, he said.
Hungry, dirty but unhurt: The boys, aged five and ten, were reportedly taken for check ups at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center (pictured) before being released in the care of social services
A renter of another unit said he believed the family had been living there 'for months'. There is no heat inside the units and only the hallways are wired for electricity, he said.
Staff at the Extra Space Storage Facility had initially refused access to officers without a warrant, but relented after they were told there could be children in danger, said Lieutenant Kieffer.
Flo Auletta, who owns a restaurant across the road from the storage company told the Trentonian that paramedics, code enforcement officials and social workers subsequently arrived on the scene.
Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann told the paper that the discovery had left him 'shocked and appalled' and said he had called the town's two other storage companies to check there was nothing similar occurring.
'I just wished the mother would have sought help instead of going down the route she took,' he added. 'There’s Homefront, the County’s Board of Social Services, Women’s Space — anything would have been better.'
Johnson, 27, who was initially held on a charge of criminal mischief, has now been charged with two counts of second-degree child endangerment and last night remained in the custody of Ewing Police.