Two young boys were found living in an unheated, dirty storage unit in New Jersey yesterday after their mother was arrested for allegedly slashing her boyfriend's car tires.
Sheena Johnson, 27, was charged with criminal mischief in Trenton for the alleged tire-slashing on Thursday morning, but when she was brought in for questioning, she told officers she had two dependents living in an Extra Space Storage facility in nearby Ewing. Police went to investigate, and discovered a 5-year-old boy and a 10-year old boy inside one of the narrow units. "That's where their house is—that's where they're living," police sergeant Mark Kieffer told The Times of Trenton. Photographs taken of the unit's interior show a small, dark space filled with a mattress, suitcase, boxes, backpacks, clothes, water bottles, sleeping bags and other clutter. "It was just filthy in there," Kieffer said.
Authorities think the boys have been living in the locker, which lacks both heat and electricity, for about a month, though an evaluation at a local hospital found both children in reasonable health. Johnson has been charged with two-counts of second-degree child endangerment.
