Little children found left alone inside sweltering west side Detroit house

DETROIT (WJBK) - Worried neighbors called 911 after discovering four young children left home alone inside a house on Detroit's west side.

The oldest child is only 6 years old, the youngest is just 9 months old. Inside the home was dangerously hot inside. Now Child Protective Services is stepping in.

No one was here at this home on Faust when FOX 2 came knocking on the door. Four children alone in deplorable conditions. police say the mother was nowhere to be found at the time, and the whole ordeal captured on cell phone video.

Police and EMTs were outside the home Tuesday evening attending to the four young children.

"There was a 9-month-old, I think the other one was 3, and a 2-year-old," said neighbor Christian Hicks. "They all had soaked diapers. I had to bring three diapers down for the police and EMTs to change them. The landlord let the kids sit in the car and get cool. They brought food over here for the kids. (There) was just a lot going on. It was crazy."

Neighbors say the mother did not seem concerned when she first got the call that police had arrived.

"After my friend called her like, 'Hey the police are at your house' and she was like OK I'm on my way, like all calm," said Hicks. "She really didn't care they were here. But when she got here and saw what was going on, her whole mood changed. I feel for the kids because that is neglect to me. I have a kid myself."

"The mother we occasionally see walking up the street without the kids," said neighbor Brianna Walker. "The landlord came over and said this happens all the time, she leaves her kids by herself."

It was the landlord who found the children alone and called police. He didn't want to comment when we tried to speak with him.

"It was sad when the EMT and police got here," Walker said. "The kids were hungry, soiled in diapers, coming to the door for air. The paramedics had to see what was going on with them."

FOX 2 also tried calling the mother of those four children and got a relative on the phone.

FOX 2: "Who did she leave her children with at this house?"

"A friend of the family," the relative said.

FOX 2: "And this friend they left and went where?"

"We don't know," the relative said.

Detroit police said the children are now staying with a family member. Child Protective Services is also investigating, but cannot comment.

So far, the mother has been ticketed for her children being left alone, but a spokesperson for DPD says more charges could come depending on what comes out of the investigation.