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Their parents, 43-year-old Shane Robertson and 37-year-old Crystal Robertson, are each charged with seven felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child, said Pennridge Regional Police Department in a release.
The investigation began on April 23, when PRPD was called to the 600 block of Roseann Lane in West Rockhill Township for a report of three children entering an abandoned trailer, the department said.
Officers brought the trio home to a nearby trailer, where they met their parents, the release goes on. At the family home, police said they found "deplorable living conditions" and a padlock on the refrigerator door.
The parents explained that they locked the fridge "due to the family having little money and the children eating the food," police wrote.
Authorities filed a report with Bucks County Children and Youth and returned with a social worker the following day.
During the second visit, another four kids were found "hidden" in a back bedroom, according to officers. After conditions in the home were deemed "unsanitary and essentially unsafe," all seven children were placed in protective custody and screened at an area hospital, the release says.
Police did not give the children's ages, though 6abc reported they range from 4 to 16.
Social workers found that the children "lacked basic knowledge," including their dates of birth, and none of them had ever attended school. All of the children "exhibited social anxiety" and said they were uncomfortable in public, police added.
Medically, they were "clinically underweight and malnourished" and had poor hygiene, police continued. Two of them needed their heads shaved due to hair matting, while another needed "extensive dental treatment."
Both parents have since been released after posting 10 percent of their $10,000 bail bond, police said. Court records show they will return to court for their preliminary hearing on Aug. 7.
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