newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A call of animal abuse has turned into potential elderly abuse charges for a New Jersey woman.

According to 7online.com, police received a call that there were a large number of cats living in the basement of a West New York home. After they responded, they found 89-year-old Delphine Von-Der Linden inside the basement. The basement door had been barricaded from the outside by a shovel.

The woman appeared to be upset and disoriented, and was unable to answer basic questions, according to police. Her daughter-in-law, Piedad Von-Der Linden, arrived, and said she’d only left her mother-in-law there for about two hours. She said the door had been blocked to prevent it from blowing open in the wind, and to keep the family cat from running off.

According to NBC New York, another exit from the basement had been blocked with plywood and cinder block. A building inspector said the basement was not fit for habitation.

Piedad Von Der Linden was arrested on charges of elderly abuse and neglect, according to an Associated Press report on New York Daily News. She insisted she had only been away for two hours to go to church, and the police had misunderstood the situation.

Delphine Von Der Linden said she had never been locked in the basement by her daughter-in-law, saying, “She was helping me, or I wouldn’t be here.”