Two University of Florida scientists were arrested Friday after allegedly locking their children in cages while they went to work.
According to FOX 35, Dustin Huff, 35, and Yurui Xie, 31, are accused by the Gainesville Police Department of leaving their children at home in small cages while they were at work.
The couple allegedly showed police the homemade cages “as if it were all normal” when officers searched their property, officials said.
“I’m not used to walking in and seeing a cage where children are kept at night and, of course, when home alone,” said Gainesville Police Sergeant John Pandak.
According to the Miami Herald, the couple worked some nights and weekends. According to the outlet, the cage was a “large unsanded, wooden enclosure made of pressure-treated 2×4’s that appeared to be a makeshift cage,” according to an arrest report.
According to one of the children, he would sometimes be in the cage from the time he got home from school until he had to leave the next morning at 7 a.m.
One of the students told a school employee that he didn’t want to go home because his parents would lock him up.
The couple was placed on administrative leave by University of Florida officials. They were charged with child neglect and aggravated child abuse.
The children, aged six and two, were placed in the care of vetted family members.
