Cops Say Parents Would Go to Meals and Leave 5 Starving Kids Inside. Here’s How Mom Defended Herself

A Florida couple are charged with child neglect after police found their five kids living without electricity, food, or plumbing — but the mom says she plans to "fix everything."

Sanel Canovic, 40, and Azra Nikocevic, 33, were arrested New Year's Eve and charged with five counts of child neglect each.

Officers were alerted to the situation after allegedly encountering their 6-year-old son running across the street unsupervised on 15th Street in Miami Beach, according to arrest reports obtained by PEOPLE.

The child then allegedly led officers to a residence where they found four other youths living with no food, no electricity, no working stove, a clogged toilet and wearing soiled clothing — and their parents nowhere to be found.

All six children told cops they were hungry. The eldest child, aged 12, told police that the children often went to bed hungry and that they hadn't had electricity in the apartment for weeks.

The child told police that because they ate breakfast and lunch at school, their parents would deny them food at home. In fact, the parents "would frequently share a meal in the evening without providing food for the children," the arrest report, paraphrasing the child, alleges.

The eldest child alleged in the arrest report that the parents would even go out for a meal without their kids. Sometimes, their mother would leave $20 for the eldest child to purchase fast food for her siblings; other times, they would simply go hungry, she claimed.

The children were all placed in protective custody and the parents were arrested; they were each released on their own recognizance.

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When CBS News Miami caught up with Nikocevic, she admitted that "the electricity was off for, like, a month-and-a-half, and the toilet was clogged." But, she says, she "will fix everything."

Nikocevic denied ever letting the children go to bed hungry, noting that she simply wouldn't always allow them to eat McDonald's, restaurant food, or Raising Cane's.

Nikocevic told the outlet that after moving from New York to Miami, she was attempting to apply for food stamps due to low wages, and admitted she was "focusing more on the job than the kids."

"Just take care of your kids and, you know, love them as much as you can," she said.

Read the original article on People