The DYKAS Siblings - 2, 5, 7 and 10 yo - Dade City FL

DADE CITY - Saturday morning, the 2-year-old boy wandered outside
his house alone, through a field with livestock roaming, and climbed
over a cattle gate, authorities said.

At 8:45 a.m., a neighbor found the boy, unharmed, and alerted the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

The child's discovery led to his parents' arrest on child neglect charges.

A deputy went to the boy's home at 41305 Dykas
Lane and discovered the boy and his three siblings, ages 5, 7 and 10,
in "deplorable and unsafe living conditions," a sheriff's report states.

The deputy found a 7-year-old playing outside the home wearing only
shorts and no shoes. A 5-year-old boy was wearing only underwear.

Several of the house windows, sheriff's reports state, were covered with boards.

"As we entered the home, the smell was so profound we were unable to stand the stench of feces in the home," a report states.

A trail of human feces
led from the bathroom and to other parts of the house. It was on
clothes left on the floor and in the children's beds. The toilet was
broken and clearly hadn't been flushed in days, according to a deputy.

Tanya Faye Dykas, 29, told a deputy and a child protection
investigator that she didn't know the boy had wandered off because she
had been sleeping.

The children had been defecating on the floor, she told them, and
she got tired of cleaning it up and told them to do it, a report says.

Chicken feces were found inside a room where one of the children was
allowed to keep his show chickens. Floors throughout the house were
damp from urine, feces and leaking pipes, the reports state.

The kitchen sink had stagnant water. The kitchen table and counters were covered in moldy leftover food. The refrigerator and stove were broken.
Dykas told investigators the family's food was kept in a second refrigerator outside.

Inside the refrigerator, a deputy found a bottle of ketchup, mold, rotting beans and what looked like chicken feces. The refrigerator doors were covered with algae.
Dykas
told investigators she didn't keep food in the house because they ate
fast food at nearly every meal, a report said. One of the children told
authorities his mother didn't buy groceries because the rats got into
them.

The children's father, Justin Wade Dykas, 29, told deputies he
didn't know the children had been defecating on the floor. He said the
toilet hadn't been flushed in about four days, according to the report.

Both parents, who work as laborers, told deputies they lived in such conditions because of laziness, authorities said.

Justin Dykas told
investigators that he has asked the children to pick up after
themselves but they refused, and he's tired and doesn't feel like doing
anything when he comes home from his job at Publix, a report said.

Each parent was arrested Saturday on four counts of child neglect.
They were released Monday night from the Land O' Lakes Jail on $40,000
bail for each.

On Tuesday, Tanya Dykas hung up when a reporter called seeking comment.