Beneath Kansas City, Mo., in a cool, damp maze of mining caves, police stumbled upon two young boys curled up on vehicle bench seats in a wooden shipping crate. Behind them, cars were on lifts. Spare parts were sorted into piles on the ground. The dirt floor was soaked with assorted vehicle fluids.
Police were there last week to investigate a possible chop shop in the caves — an underground complex that, over many years, has transformed from a 19th century limestone quarry into real estate for hundreds of businesses, including storage and warehouses, according to the Associated Press.
The boys — 4 and 6 — told police they lived “in the cave” with their mother, who had gone to take her boyfriend to the hospital because he had “smashed his finger,” according to court records. Investigators said they were alone — the 4-year-old eating with his fingers from a dry, dirty cup of ramen noodles.
“I asked where their shoes were and I was told that they had no shoes,” Det. Penny Cole with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a probable cause statement. “They stated that they had no toys at the cave, no other clothing, no shoes and that there was no water or place to cook. The 6-year-old advised that he should be in the first grade but that he did not go to school.”
Authorities took them to a nearby hospital where they were bathed and dressed in clean clothes.
Police said their mother, Brittany Mugrauer, 24, told investigators the children had been living there for several days and that she had left them without supervision. She has been charged with felony child endangerment.
Her first court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Jackson County Prosecutor’s spokesman Michael Mansur said. It’s unclear whether she has an attorney.
This is what one of the caves where Brittany Mugrauer left her two children alone in a shipping crate looks like. pic.twitter.com/9W21boVtFt
— Andres Gutierrez (@AFGutierrez) September 12, 2015
Over the past few days, those close to the situation have called it a mere misunderstanding.
Sean Dale, who owns Underground Diesel where the boys were discovered, said they enjoy hanging out inside the caves while he works on cars. He told the Kansas City Star that they play with toys and sometimes tinker with a laptop inside what he now mockingly calls the “crate of doom.”
“The kids would ask to come here all the time,” he told CBS News’s KCTV-TV. “‘Can we go to the caves? Can we go to the cave and see the trucks?’ We thought, well, you know, since she was here and didn’t have a sitter at the time that instead of having them run amok in the shop, which could be hazardous, we get them a little area where they could watch movies or play with their toy cars or whatever.”
Dale said the boys were not without adult supervision, claiming his mechanics were with them.
“The [surveillance] video clearly shows that they arrived that morning — clean, fed, at no time were they unsupervised,” he told KCTV-TV, adding: “There’s no doors, no hinges, no restrictions. There was no, ‘You guys can’t come out of there.’ They were free to able to come and go as they please.”
Mugrauer’s father, Wayne Mugrauer, told Fox News’s WDAF-TV that his daughter worked as a secretary at the underground auto body shop and that her children enjoyed going with her to work.
“They’re little gearheads,” Wayne Mugrauer told the news station. “They love it there and they weren’t in harm’s way and they were always looked after and there’s always someone with them.”
Wayne Mugrauer said that earlier this year his daughter lost a child, who died from SIDS. He said he moved her and the boys from their home in Florida to Kansas City to help her recover.
“They’ve always had a roof over their heads and a place to stay,” Wayne Mugrauer told WDAF-TV. “There’s never been a problem with food, or money, or clothing or shoes.”
Court records show Brittany Mugrauer’s address as the shop’s, according to the Kansas City Star.
“I just want them back,” Wayne Mugrauer said.
This story has been updated.
MORE READING: