Police were called to a home in Bonney Lake to check out reports of "muffled screaming" coming from the garage.

When they got there, a woman at the home let them into the garage.

According to police documents, inside the garage police found two children -- a 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy.

"One of them was bound and gagged. He was bound with plastic zip ties and gagged with masking tape," explained Ron Kearney with the Bonney Lake Police Department. Police say he was tied so tight that it was breaking his skin. "The girl was basically tied up to the base of a water heater."

Both kids were barefoot and only wearing underwear, police documents said.

Neighbor Channa Carsey was the one who heard the kids' muffled cries and called police.

Carsey said there was always a lot of screaming and crying at the house but not like this.

"Today was just different," said Carsey. "The screaming was ongoing and the mom seemed to be taunting (the kids) telling them 'go ahead and scream all you want, I don't care! It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.' "

Carsey added, when detectives arrived they could clearly hear the kids' stepmom talking to them inside the garage.

"They came out and stood listening at the garage for a while," she said. "They heard the mom say 'I can't hear you' because their mouths were covered. That's when police went in and pulled them out."

Police arrested a 33-year-old woman at the house, said to be the children's stepmother. They also arrested the kids' biological father who was not home when the children were found.

News of how the children were found spread quickly through the neighborhood. Neighbors were disgusted.

"I don't want to tell you what I would like to do to somebody who would do that to their kids," said Dennis Kraughan. "It's insane, it's not human, it's not right. The people who were responsible for that need to be put in jail for a long, long time."

Those two children have been taken to Mary Bridge Hospital to be checked out, while two other children in the home -- an infant and an 11-year-old -- have been placed with Child Protective Services.