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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A 24-year-old mother is in custody Saturday after her two young children were found barefoot, dirty and living in a wooden shipping crate in an underground cave [ap.org] on the eastern edge of Kansas City, Missouri.
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Mugrauer told investigators that her children had been living in the cave for several days and acknowledged leaving them there alone, the probable cause statement says. She was taken into custody Friday afternoon and has not yet appeared in court.
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The extensive network of caves is the product of massive limestone mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Years after the mining operations ceased, companies started finding ways to use the millions of square feet of abandoned underground space. The caves house hundreds of businesses, many of which specialize in storage or warehousing because they are protected from extreme weather and have year-round temperatures of around 70 degrees.
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Many of the caves feature paved roads, utilities and developed business space, while others, such as the one where the children were found, consist of dirt floors and uncontrolled entrances.

Dirty and alone sounds bad, though many people do that with kids that old. Caves that are "protected from extreme weather and have year-round temperatures of around 70 degrees" sound like a good choice for a city that's in the middle of Tornado Alley.

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