An 8-year-old caught shoplifting a deck of cards led police to a Staten Island house of horrors, where he and two siblings – one a sick infant – had been left to fend for themselves, police said.
The shocking discovery was made Monday shortly after police were called to a drugstore in Rosebank at around 7:45 p.m.
Cops told the young boy to phone home, and his 11-year-old sister answered.
She said she was caring for her 11-month-old baby brother, who had a fever.
When police arrived at the squalid basement apartment at 66 Clifton Ave., “there were dirty clothes everywhere and very little for the children to eat,” according to court papers.
The parents, Adedamola Adediran and his wife, Olubukola, both Nigerian immigrants, were not at home.
When cops called the father on his cellphone, he said he and his wife were out getting medication for the baby. An hour later, both returned home empty handed, cops said.
The parents were slapped with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, according to Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Additional reporting by John Doyle and Cynthia Fagen