Josh Romo wondered why his 2-year-old daughter sometimes dreaded going to her day care in Sealy. “Now we know,” he said Thursday after hearing news that state child welfare officials reported they found children stashed in a shed Wednesday at the Sealy in-home day care operation. His daughter was among the children in the shed.
“That lady’s going to hate me when she sees me,” the 31-year-old father said about one of the day care center’s owners. “Lock ’em up.”
The children — locked in the storage shed with gasoline, lawn equipment and insecticides — appear to be unharmed, Sealy police said.
Freddie Patek and his wife, Marietta Patek, both 65, who operate the facility, have been charged and are being held at the county jail, said Austin County District Attorney Travis Koehn.
Koehn said he is uncertain if keeping children in a shed and other areas of the house was common practice at the facility. However, Koehn added that the child welfare inspectors were not allowed immediate access to the home.
14 children found
Koehn said that Freddie Patek is charged with tampering with physical evidence because he hid the children and Marietta Patek is charged with six counts of endangering a child.
“It’s really, really frightening about what could have happened,” said Gwen Carter, spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services.
Officials said a concerned person Wednesday alerted the department that too many children were at the facility.
When department investigators visited the home, they found children inside a shed, in the backyard and several rooms in the home, Carter said.
Carter said that about 14 children — toddlers to preteens — were found at the facility, which is licensed to care for only three children at a time.
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