Left: Chazzity Candelario with her children (Facebook). Center: Chazzity Candelario (Lebanon County Regional Police Department). Right: Chazzity Candelario (Facebook).
A mom in Pennsylvania who couldn’t control her son while she was at work started stowing the 11-year-old away in her basement, locking the boy up to a fuel tank and other things for hours on end using handcuffs, police say.
Chazzity Candelario, 33, of North Lebanon Township, is facing felony charges of unlawful restraint of a minor and false imprisonment of a minor, as well as a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children, for the alleged abuse. She was also arrested in 2017 for endangering the welfare of children, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia in connection to an incident involving her kids, according to the Lebanon Daily News.
“On January 11, 2025 … the Lebanon County Regional Police Department was dispatched to 680 East Kercher Avenue for an 11-year-old juvenile male that was restrained with handcuffs,” the Lebanon County Regional Police reported online Tuesday. “An investigation revealed the juvenile’s mother, Chazzity Candelario, had restrained the juvenile to an oil tank in the basement using handcuffs.”
According to LebTown, Candelario’s arrest affidavit says police arrived on scene and made contact with her children while she was away at work. The kids directed an officer to a bedroom, where the 11-year-old victim was handcuffed to the railing of a top bunk bed.
The boy told cops he was initially locked up in the basement but managed to escape. While free, he accidentally handcuffed himself to the bed, LebTown reports.
Authorities contacted Candelario, who allegedly ordered them to not speak with her children until after she got back to the residence. Once there, she allegedly told police that she had trouble controlling her son while he was home and she was working, so Candelario started locking him up in a 3 feet by 8 feet utility room and handcuffing him to the oil tank. The boy told investigators that he would typically be restrained for up to two hours at a time while his mom was away at work — sometimes to a “post,” according to LebTown.
For her 2017 arrest, Candelario was charged alongside her partner, John Zayas, who can be seen on her Facebook page posing in photos with her and her kids. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of children, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
More from Law&Crime: ‘Murdered by a monster who was her so called mother’: 5-year-old girl allegedly forced to live in a filthy closet starves to death after child welfare authorities repeatedly return her to mom
On Facebook, Candelario posts photos and statuses regularly with her kids featured or mentioned.
A collection of Halloween pics from 2021 shows her children dressed up as kids from The Addams Family, with a photo showing one of her sons donning fake handcuffs.
Online records show that Candelario has been remanded to Lebanon County Correctional Facility in lieu of bail as she waits for a preliminary hearing. Her bail has been set at $100,000 and she’s due in court on Jan. 23.
