4 disabled adults found locked in Pa. basement

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say four mentally disabled adults have been found locked in a northeast Philadelphia basement suffering from malnutrition.

Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman, said police were investigating a report of squatters in the building on Longshore Avenue today.

She says they found three men and a woman locked in a room in the basement behind a steel door that was chained up. Police said all had the mental capacity of 10-year-olds.

Little says the four were taken to Frankford Hospital South and were listed in stable condition.

She told The Philadelphia Inquirer that they had been living in “deplorable” conditions.

Northeast detectives and the police special-victims unit are working with other city officials to try to find out who was responsible for the care of the victims.