A Florida couple is facing multiple charges for allegedly locking up a boy they adopted in their garage for five years. Police said the 14-year-old boy managed to run away from home and told officers he would rather go to jail than return to his adopted parents, Tracy and Timothy Ferriter.
Authorities said the Ferriters, who are both 46, kept the boy under constant surveillance in an eight-foot by eight-foot structure that had only a mattress and bucket for him to use as a toilet. The door was bolted shut and could only be opened from inside the house. The teen told detectives he would spend up to 18 hours per day living in the tiny structure, only leaving so he could go to school. He noted that he was forced to live in similar conditions when he was with a family in Arizona.
Other children in the house told detectives that the teen was forced to stay in the garage because he was "in trouble a lot."
The Ferriters were charged with aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment and were being held on a $50,000 bond. They were ordered to have no contact with their children, who were placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.