Shock pics reveal filthy tool shed where dad & his girlfriend ‘locked autistic teen with buckets of feces & canned food’

SHOCKING pictures show the filthy conditions inside a shed where a father and his girlfriend allegedly locked his autistic teen son.

The 14-year-old boy was reportedly found inside the cramped six by 10 foot shed, along with a bucket of human feces and canned food.

The inside of the shed where the autistic child was held with snacks, tools, canned food, and a bucket of human waste in Arcadia, Florida. (Newsflash)Newsflash

RAISING THE ALARM

The alarm was raised following a complaint from the boy’s grandmother.

The department of children and families realized that the boy was locked in the shed following regular visits to the household.

The alleged victim was found caged in the shed in a property in Arcadia, Florida.

The boy was allegedly caged into a 6 x 10 foot room with canned food, a bed covered in food wrappers, scattered tools, and a bucket containing human feces.

The shed was very hot and there was no electricity or plumbing. There was one window and a vent.

LOCKED UP

The DCF had to forcibly open the door when the boy was rescued. The father reportedly said he only locked him in there “in case a fire started”,

The autistic boy told the police that it was the father’s girlfriend’s idea to lock the him in the shed, and he went on to say that at first his father was hesitant but then went along with the idea.

Jennifer Ann Hines, 36, was accused of aggravated child abuse after police say they found a 14-year-old autistic boy locked inside of a 6 x 10 shed on the property in Arcadia, Florida on 21st January 2022. (DeSoto County Jail/Newsflash)Newsflash

The father told the cops that caging the boy was justified because of his “behaviors and stuff that made him put him in the shed.”

Previously the boy had allegedly be locked in another room of the house.

When the alleged victim was asked where he used a restroom, he said: “If I have to urinate, my dad makes me go in the yard. If I have to do something else, he makes me walk to the closest store to use the restroom.”

A bucket containing human feces was found in the shed.

The boy also told the cops how he had been saving a bottle of water because he knew it was all that he was going to have to drink.

Arcadia Police Department Lieutenant Troy Carrillo said: “When talking to the victim, he explained to us, he was like ‘Hey did you see that bottle of water that was in there?’ We were like ‘Yeah, we [saw] it.’

“He was like ‘I was saving that for the weekend because I knew that was the only thing I was going to drink that entire time.’

The alleged victim had only eaten a packet of pistachios the day he was rescued.

CARING FOR OTHERS

Prior to the boy being found, his father the the dad’s girlfriend had reportedly attempted to withdraw the 14 year old from school.

Counselling Director at Florida Gulf Coast University, Dr. Abbe Finn, preached that people need to be “looking out for special needs members of our community to make sure that they are being cared for in the ways that anyone would want them to be.”

“If they disappear, if they’re not going to school… this is a school aged child… is he not going to school? So somebody should be asking where is he and what’s going on? How do we know that he’s okay?

JUSTICE SERVED

When questioned, the girlfriend claimed that she did not know anything about the shed.

Lieutenant Carrillo said: “She [Hines] said she had no knowledge of anything going on and tried to distance herself from the situation. But when we spoke to the victim, he told us what her part was.”

Harry Richard Shoemaker, 44, was accused of aggravated child abuseNewsflash

Cops said how the boy reacted to news that his dad had been arrested, saying: “Oh thank God I don’t have to go back to that shed again.”

Harry Richard Shoemaker, 44 and Jennifer Anne Hines, 36, are facing felony charges of cruelty toward a child, and aggravated battery on a child.

The boy is currently in the care of his grandmother in New York who had previously made a complaint to the DCF.