Box truck arrests spark public support

NEW CASTLE, Ind. (WISH) - After two parents were arrested with children and cats in the back of a moving truck, community support for the family of nine quickly became apparent.

Hoosiers spoke out on the WISH-TV Facebook page and made calls to the Henry County sheriff, wanting to help the family. David and Rebecca Detjen were jailed and their children were put into foster care after police found children unsecured in the back of a box truck along Interstate 70 in Henry County.

Many giving Hoosiers heard the story and wanted to help a family down on their luck.

“He had lost his job, possibly had another job, was trying to make things better. It was just a bad situation made worse,” said Robert Williamson of Davis Towing & Recovery, who impounded the rental truck.

Police say David and Rebecca Detjen were traveling with their seven children in a rental truck when they were pulled over in Henry County. According to the police, two kids were in the cab and five were in the back of the unheated truck .

The family was moving from Pennsylvania to California. After the community learned what happened, the calls started coming in.

“We've had several phone calls of people offering to pay for it and everything else and trying to help them,” Williamson said.

Robert Williamson said he knew right away he was going to waive the $150 fee and $20 a day storage fee. He says he's received about a dozen calls from people wanting to help, but he didn't think twice about taking the financial hit.

“It’s part of being on the interstate. You get a lot of people that travel, that don't carry a lot, don't have a lot of money with them. You just try and do what you can do,” Williamson said.

Just a few miles up the road, another business owner offered what he could to the family.

“I contacted the sheriff and said that we would gladly put them up and give them the room and arrange for them to have and get to where they're going,” said Maurice Cook, owner of the Raintree Inn in New Castle.

Cook says he knows why police had to take the couple into custody, but he says watching a family suffer because of limited choices breaks his heart.

“It’s the least we can do, and it says the best about Indiana,” says Cook.

Rebecca and David Detjen were in court Friday. The Henry County prosecutor dropped three of the preliminary charges against them. Now they're each facing one count of neglect. If convicted they could serve between six months to three years in jail. The kids were placed in foster care, but 24-Hour News 8 is told a family member from Pennsylvania is coming to pick up the truck as well as the children. The next court date was set for Feb. 7.