(KTVT/CNN) — A Dallas woman faces charges after police found her 6-year-old grandson tied up in a shed.
Police responded to the home on Sunday night after receiving a tip about the boy.
The child’s grandmother, 53-year-old Esmeralda Lira, told them the child was with his mother, but a man living in the back of the property pointed them to the shed, according to KTVT.
The officers found the boy with his hands tied behind his back, KTVT reported.
Lira claimed it was the first time her grandson was put in the shed, but her live-in boyfriend, 64-year-old Jose Balderas, said the boy was being punished for at least two weeks after stealing food.
The child told police he had been forced to sleep in the shed, and the alleged abuse started around the time he “got out of school for this corona thing.”
Lira and Balderas both face felony charges for endangering a child.
The 6-year-old boy, his 7-year-old sister and 4-year-old brother have been removed from the home.
