US authorities have found 11 children locked in cages at a home in Ohio.
The children - who range in age from 1 to 14 and have various disabilities, including autism - have been placed in foster homes.
The children were found in nine cages built into the walls of the house near this small city in northern Ohio, according to the Huron County Sheriff's Office. They had no blankets or pillows, and the cages were rigged with alarms that sounded if opened, police said.
A children's services investigator had seen one of the children in a cage on Friday; the sheriff's office obtained a warrant and returned to the house that evening and removed the children.
The children told authorities they slept in the cages - 40 inches high and 40 inches deep - at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy furniture. One of the boys said he'd slept in the cage for three years.
Sharen and Mike Gravelle are adoptive or foster parents for all 11 children, officials said. County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said the Gravelles claimed a psychiatrist recommended they place the children in cages.
The couple were reserved when deputies arrived at the house to remove the children, a police spokesman said. "The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK," he said.