A man in Dallas responded to a heartbreaking call for help from his neighbors. But the perpetrators were no criminals or strangers.
They were part of the same household.
Juan Vaquero of Dallas was at the center of a distressing turn of events in his neighborhood.
The 54-year-old lives in a complex with his landlord as his neighbor. Vaquero’s landlord is Esmeralda Lira, who lives with her 6-year-old grandson and her boyfriend, Jose Balderas.
Vaquero owes his living space to Lira. He’s fortunate to have a place to live, but there’s a catch.
He occasionally overhears what goes on in his landlord’s household, and it’s not good.
Something about the way she “disciplines” her grandson seemed off.
But Vaquero, as hard as it was, tried not to poke his nose into it. He could risk being evicted if he questioned what Lira was doing in her own household, as concerning as it may be.
However, Vaquero eventually had to bite the bullet when something much more serious happened.
Vaquero heard a young voice calling from the landlord’s residence one Sunday night.
It was a cry for help.
It sounded like the young boy he would normally see playing in the backyard.
But there was no sight of the boy playing in the backyard, and the lights were turned off all over the house.
What could be going on? Whatever it was, Vaquero was the only one around to investigate.
Vaquero soon found out where the cries for help were coming from. The 6-year-old boy was trapped in a shed.
This shocked him and broke his heart. He had to help the boy, but he also wanted those responsible to be convicted with proof.
So Vaquero began talking to the boy first. He asked how long he’d been trapped in there.
The boy said he’d been inside the shed since 6:00 PM, and it was already 10:00 PM.
He pulled out a phone to record all the questions he’d ask the boy, starting with “Do you have blankets? Do you have a bed?” to which the boy replied “No.”
The boy’s answer to his second question was even more heartbreaking. Vaquero asked if he’d eaten, and the boy said “In the morning, yes. But…”, and Vaquero was taken aback. It was nighttime and the boy hadn’t eaten anything in hours.
Vaquero wanted to smuggle some Jello for him, but the boy informed him he wouldn’t be able to accept it anyway because his hands were tied.
It would take an incredibly cruel person to do such a thing, and the boy’s grandma seems to fit the bill now. Vaquero’s hunches were right.
The boy couldn’t move and the shed was incredibly dirty and cramped. He was punished for grabbing things he wasn’t meant to.
Just recently, the boy did visit Vaquero a few times asking for food. He didn’t realize its significance at the time, but now all the pieces were falling into place.
This boy was a victim of child abuse and neglect.
Sure, grabbing things you shouldn’t warrants some discipline.
But to say that his grandmother’s punishment was excessive is an understatement.
Vaquero called the police. They arrived at 11:00 that night and Vaquero pointed them to the shed.
The shed was filthy.
It had rats and roaches in it, and it had 2 square feet that barely accommodated the boy.
His hands were tied behind his back with shoelaces.
Lira and Balderas were arrested and charged with child endangerment. But that wasn’t the end of the story.
It turned out that this wasn’t the first time the boy was locked in this shed.
It was a routine punishment from Lira, who’d done it every night for at least two weeks prior.
Well, now she’s the one being locked up. Let’s see how well she adjusts to it.
The boy calls Vaquero his friend now, a detail Vaquero shared as he wiped away tears.
With his landlord behind bars, Vaquero had to find a new place to live. But it was a small sacrifice to make if it meant changing this boy’s life.
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