Couple arrested for locking their four adopted children up all day

Tucson, Arizona couple Benito, 69 (left),and Carol Gutierrez, 64 (right), were arrested on three counts of child abuse on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied

A Tucson, Arizona couple has been accused of keeping their four adopted children locked up in bedrooms for hours at a time, without access to food, water, or even the restroom.

Benito, 69, and Carol Gutierrez, 64, were arrested on Tuesday and charged with three counts of child abuse, the Daily Mail reports.

Their arrest comes three days after one of their kids escaped through a bedroom window and ran to a nearby shop for help.

The boy asked to use the phone, but the shop worker decided to call 911 for him due to the child's age and condition.

When police arrived at the family's home on North Flowing Wells Road, they found that the four kids, ages six to 12, were being kept in horrific conditions.

"The children were kept in separate bedrooms, which were locked from the outside," the Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. "(They had) no access to food, water, lights or bathroom facilities for up to 12 hours at a time on a regular basis."

In one of the bedrooms, officers found a bucket which the kids used to go to the bathroom.

The children have since been removed from the home. It's unclear who they are being taken care of by currently.

The case is reminiscent of the arrest last month of David and Louise Turpin in Perris, California. One of the couple's 13 children escaped the home and alerted police that she and her siblings were being held as prisoners in the home. When police showed up to the family's home they discovered that the couple were keeping many of the kids shackled to their beds and that all but the youngest child were malnourished. The Turpin children range in age from tow to 29.