A CALIFORNIAN couple from Joshua Tree have been arrested after policediscovered that the couple, along with their three children, had been living inside of a box for four years.

The discovery was only made after police stopped to check what they thought was an abandoned caravan and camping site.

Mona Kirk, 51, and Daniel Panico, 73, were taken into custody by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department after it was found they, along with three underage children, were living inside of a “large rectangular box made of plywood,” a press release stated.

The box, according to the department, had no electricity or running water and was stationed on the same property as a trailer that appeared to be unused and abandoned.

“Several large holes and mounds of trash and human faeces were located throughout the property,” officials said, adding that roughly “30-40 cats were located inside the trailer and roaming freely.”

The deputies determined the children — ages 11, 13 and 14 — didn’t have enough food and were living in an “unsuitable and unsafe environment.”

An investigation found the family was living inside the box, which officials said was approximately 6 meters long, 1.2m high and 3m wide, for around four years.

Kirk and Panico were booked into the Morongo Basin Jail on suspicion of wilful cruelty to children on a $100,000 bond.