Neglected children rescued from Zaanstreek flat

Two frightened and seriously neglected boys were rescued from an apartment in the Zaanstreek region. Police inspector Tom Verweij found the two children, dressed only in their underwear, on a piping hot day after a call from a neighbor, he said in a Facebook post. According to Verweij, the kids showed animal behavior and weren't able to talk. He did not mention exact dates or the exact location.

The neighbor called the police because she heard the two boys, whom she had never seen, crying and screaming all day. Verweij described how he made contact with the children. He first knocked on the door, but no one opened. So he tapped on the window until a small boy pulled the curtain open.

"I looked into the sweet eyes of a little boy. Only dressed in underpants, he looked at me fearfully. With one hand he held the curtain, in the other hand a knife", the police inspector said. "A toddler appeared behind him, wearing only a diaper and a thumb in his mouth. Both boys looked dazed and sweated like pigs."

After finding out that the building manager had no telephone number for the boys' parents, Verweij decided to force his way into the apartment. In the hall, he saw that the door of the room in which the boys were, was blocked with a stool and a belt. "The two boys were locked up on a hot day like today and would have had no escape in the event of a fire." It was very hot in the flat, all the windows were closed and the boys had nothing to eat and drink. The older boy ran to the gallery when he saw Verweij, where he immediately fainted. The younger boy's diaper was in desperate need of changing.

The children were placed in a foster home. Their foster mother told the police that the boys showed animal behavior. They were on their own for so long that they had developed their own language, Verweij wrote. "Hopefully the help didn't come too late and the boys will be able to process this very bad start", he wrote. "My urgent call to you is: do you suspect child abuse or an unsafe home situation? Please report it!"