Starving little boy, 6, ‘locked in shed by his grandmother’ told neighbor he couldn’t eat in haunting conversation
A SIX-year-old boy found allegedly locked in a shed by his grandmother said that he couldn't eat because his hands were tied behind his back.
Neighbor Juan Vaquero shared a recording of the haunting conversation he had with the boy with CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.
Vaquero – who is renting a camper from the boy's grandmother, Esmeralda Lira, said he called Child Protective Services after he heard a voice from a padlocked shed behind a camper around 10 p.m. on Sunday.
The child said in the recording he had been locked in the Texas shed since 6 p.m., and he hadn't eaten since the morning.
"I can walk, but I can’t move my hands and touch," the child told Vaquero.
Vaquero questioned: “You said she tied up your hands?”
"Yes," the child responded.
The neighbor asked the boy why his hands were tied.
"Because she didn’t want me grabbing things anymore," the six-year-old said.
Vaquero then asked the child if he'd eaten, and the child said he hadn't since morning in the recording shared with CBS DFW.
Vaquero said he would get the child food, and offered the child a sandwich or jello.
The boy said he would have trouble eating, however, because his hands were tied behind his back.
"I can’t open jello. She tied my hands behind my back like the police do," the child said.
"But with a rope. And she tightened them," he added.
The child then added: "She lets me out in the morning. I’ll take a bath. and then we’ll see each other outside.”
Vaquero then told the frightened child he was going to get help, and the kid began crying as he left.
Police arrived at the home around 11 p.m., CBS DFW reported.
Cops found Esmeralda Lira, her boyfriend Jose Balderas, and two kids – ages four and seven in the house.
The three children are all siblings, Child Protective Services told WFAA.
Lira told police the six-year-old was in the shed, and Lira eventually gave cops a key after they threatened to break down the door, CBS DFW reported.
The boy was found "standing alone in the pitch-black shed in a blue storage bin with his hands tied behind his back with shoelaces," a warrant said, as reported by WFAA.
Police told CBS DFW there were rats and insects in the shed with the boy.
Affidavits said that the child was locked in the shed "for an extended period of time with no food or water," WFAA reported.
“It broke my heart,” Vaquero told CBS DFW of the situation.
Lira and Balderas were both arrested.
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The only explanation given by the grandmother for the situation was that he had tried to steal food, CBS DFW reported.
Both Lira and Balderas have been charged with endangering a child with imminent danger of bodily injury, according to records accessed by The Sun.
The couple are held on a bond of $100,000 each.