DALLAS (WSVN) — Police have arrested a woman and her boyfriend after the woman’s grandson was found tied up inside a shed.
According to KTVT, the child was found at 11:30 p.m. Sunday after police received a tip.
When police initially arrived at the home, the grandmother, identified as 53-year-old Esmeralda Lira, told detectives the boy was with his mother.
However, a man who lived in the back of the property pointed officers to the shed, where the boy was found with his hands tied behind his back.
According to KTVT, the grandmother told police the boy was only in the shed that one time as punishment. However, her boyfriend, 64-year-old Jose Balderas, said for at least two weeks, confinement in the shed was the boy’s punishment for stealing food.
Police said the boy told them the abuse had been going on since he “got out of school for this corona thing.”
Both Lira and Balderas were arrested and charged with endangering a child for placing him in imminent danger. They are each being held on a $100,000 bond.
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