KTKA

"This was like a freight train out of nowhere."

Even the woman who called police admits the story she heard late last week was hard to believe.

A 3 year-old boy got into stuff, so his mother punished him by keeping him in a metal wire dog cage.

"Oh my God, I was astonished. I literally got sick to my stomach."

This woman is a family friend and says last week the 3 year-old boy who lives here was hungry.

His older siblings told her the boy didn't get any dinner the night before, because he got out of his cage.

When she asked more questions, they told her their mother kept him in the cage to keep him from messing up things in the house.

"They said that she had a lock that took numbers to unlock it, and that they did not know what the numbers were. Tthey didn't know the numbers, only she did."

The children said the boy could stand up in the cage, and it's where he slept.

The only other thing inside was a potty training toilet.

The siblings told three others the same story by the end of the day without changing any details.

"They just told the exact same story over again, and that was even more mortifying because they would tell a complete stranger."

The story still clearly upsets the ones who know it.

"It's just hard because he's so sweet, it just breaks my heart."

Police removed the 3-year-old and several other children from the home.

The father of one of them says the 3-year-old used the kennel like a fort, and enjoyed being inside because that's where his toys were.