STAR PRAIRIE, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman is accused of neglecting her children, who authorities say were left behind while she slipped outside to prostitute herself inside a modified chicken coop.

Sarah M. Bradehoft, 27, of Star Prairie was charged June 23 in Polk County Circuit Court with two felonies — child neglect causing bodily harm and second-degree recklessly endangering safety — and three misdemeanor counts of prostitution.

Her six children were removed from the home after Polk County sheriff’s investigators executed a search warrant there. According to sheriff’s office reports, lab test results indicated one child was exposed to amphetamines, cocaine and methamphetamine.

The six children were 10 and younger, according to reports.

According to sheriff’s office reports, Polk County, Wis., investigators were tipped off by a St. Croix County detective, who passed along information from a Stillwater police investigation into a prostitution advertisement online. As authorities confirmed Bradehoft’s Facebook photo matched a photo in the Backpage.com ad, they were alerted that she was neglecting her children and involved in prostitution. That led to the search warrant, which was executed May 12.

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Therapy dog-in training stolen in St. Paul found, reunited with owners A relative told investigators Bradehoft traded sex acts for money “when everyone was sleeping and that the next day she would sleep during the day and would all of a sudden have money which came from her activities through the website,” according to the report.

The relative described a lack of supervision by Bradehoft, adding that other adults in the house were left to bathe the children. Bradehoft was heard striking two of the children with a belt, the relative told investigators.

Bradehoft agreed to be interviewed by investigators in the chicken coop, which had been modified into a rec room.

She told officers she needed to make money to get back to Florida and admitted to performing sex acts for cash via the website. All the acts occurred in the chicken coop, she told investigators.

It was her first exposure to prostitution, she told the officers.

“She simply needed money and therefore she decided to prostitute herself here,” the report states.