The parents of an eleven year old boy with autism have been arrested after their son was discovered locked in a dog cage in the City of Anaheim, Orange County, California.
The eleven year old boy, who has not been named due to his age has autism so severe that he is non-verbal was locked in what officers deemed to be a large dog kennel on the floor containing a mattress.
The arrest of Loi Vu, 40 and his wife,Tracy Trang Le, 35 was made at 6:15pm in Garrett Street and officers interviewed the parents who seemed to have been keeping the boy inside the cage as he was due to fits of violence. Police Lieutenant Bob Dunn with Anaheim Police Department said:
“Perhaps, as a part of his autism, he would have outbursts on occasion. As he’s grown older, the parents had difficulty adapting to these outburst and controlling them. Putting him in that cage may have been a way for them to try to, in their way, control what was going on.”
The boy seemed to be well cared for apart from being locked in a cage. He and both of his siblings have been taken into protective custody.
A neighbour commented that the parents had always seemed caring and loving towards all of their children and that they were shocked to hear of the arrest.
Further investigation is ongoing.
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