An alert FedEx worker helped save a child who was found living in a rat- and bug-infested apartment.
WABC reported that the delivery person was making a stop at the apartment Friday when he found the 5-year-old home alone.
He had needed a signature on the package he was delivering and the boy answered. When the delivery man asked the boy where his parents were, he said they were not home, The New York Post reported.
The child told police that he hadn't seen his parents since Thursday night, The New York Daily News reported.
The couple also had three other children, two girls aged 13 and 12, and a 15-year-old boy. The older children were at school when the 5-year-old was found, The New York Post reported.
The apartment had rats, roaches and maggots. Police said the apartment also had feces and blood smears on the wall, WABC reported.
One child was taken to an area hospital when insects were found crawling on his body, WABC reported. One of the other children, WABC reported, had scabies, police said.
The child’s mother, Charlotte Lewis, is a nurse at Montefiore Hospital in New York. She was charged with four counts of failure to exercise control of a minor. The child’s father, Wilfred Lewis, an MTA employee, was charged with endangering a child and four counts of failure to exercise control of a minor.
Wilfred Lewis told police that his son was "self-sufficient" when he turned himself in to police, The New York Post reported.
Bail was set at $15,000 each.
The New York Post reported that the couple had been contacted by Children's Services in the past.
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