CHICAGO – An Illinois area man was arrested Monday and charged with child endangerment after keeping one of his children locked in a cage in the back of a pickup truck at a Posen, Ill., gas station, police said Thursday.

Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, later admitted he has locked up both his daughters, ages 5 and 2, in the cage to control them so they wouldn’t run away, police said.

The child endangerment charge is a misdemeanor, but a Cook County state’s attorney’s office spokesman said it has not yet been determined whether the offense will be upgraded to a felony.

Gonzalez’s pickup truck was spotted about 4:30 p.m. Monday at a gas station in the 3000 block of West 147th Street in Posen when someone standing at a fuel pump heard what she thought was a crying child, authorities said. Police said Gonzalez was sitting in the driver’s seat at the time with the 2-year-old in his lap while the 5-year-old was locked in the cage crying.

The person at the fuel pump who heard the crying “looks inside this pickup truck and noticed a male subject pushing a juvenile’s hands back into the cage,” said Posen Deputy Police Chief Vickie Paggi. “She didn’t think this was right and notified police right away.”

Before Gonzalez had the chance to leave the gas station, he was taken into custody, Paggi said.

Gonzalez admitted he “used the (cage) to control (his children)” so they wouldn’t run away, Paggi said.

The children were turned over to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which is investigating the incident as an allegation of abuse of the two children by their father, said agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe. She also said the children have been placed into foster care.

The agency has had prior contact with the family in 2006, when they investigated the children’s mother for neglect, Marlowe said.

That allegation was “substantiated,” Marlowe said, but DCFS provided the family with “supportive services” instead of placing the children in foster care.

The makeshift cage was installed in an area behind the front driver’s side and passenger’s side seats of Gonzalez’s truck, and was made from rope, metal fencing, wires and bungee cords, Paggi said, adding that he locked the cage with a padlock.

Gonzalez’s neighbors said he works evenings collecting trash and scrap metal in his truck and always had the girls with him. Paggi said Gonzalez initially admitted locking them in the cage while he worked because the family had no baby-sitter.

But later, Paggi said, Gonzalez said he locked them in the cage when they were out of control.

One neighbor, Tracy Burns, said she grew concerned after she saw him installing fencing and a padlock in his truck with a drill and tying the passenger door shut with a rope from the outside. The girls’ mother works long hours as a dental assistant at a nearby medical center, Burns said.

Burns grew concerned after seeing Gonzalez making the cage, and several neighbors had been in contact with authorities, she said.

“I heard the drilling and wondered, ‘What could it be?”‘ the 38-year-old housewife said. “Then I thought, ‘Is this so his kids can’t get out?”‘

Gonzalez is scheduled to appear July 31 in the Markham Courthouse.

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AP-NY-07-03-08 2051EDT