A Northshore couple was arrested for child neglect, but lucky to be alive, after their three-year-old daughter was found wandering the street.

Covington Police received a report that a toddler was walking down the street along East 35th Street around 9:20 a.m., according to Lt. Jack West, a police spokesman. The child, who was suffering from an ear infection and upper respiratory infection, knocked on the front door of a residence.

Neighbors opened the door and saw the child shivering in the cold, wearing thin pajamas, no shoes and a full diaper, West said. The neighbors took the child in, changed her and cleaned her while they alerted authorities.

After arriving at the scene, officers began looking around the neighborhood to find the girl’s parents. They found a vehicle parked in the driveway with a child seat and went to knock on the front door.

West said no one answered the door at first, as more officers arrived and began banging on the side of the home. Police smelled a strong odor of natural gas in the air and feared whoever was inside the home had been overcome by the gas.

As police readied to enter the house, one of the homeowners, 24-year-old Lauren Tisdale, opened the door, West said. Tisdale told police she had a three-year-old girl but said her daughter was asleep in her bed. As police entered the home to help Tisdale look for her daughter, they noticed piles of dirty clothes and trash throughout the house, cooked food that had been left to rot on the stove and several filled ashtrays were placed around the home.

West said there was no heat in the home and that the natural gas odor made several of the officers feel dizzy. Police removed Lauren Tisdale and her husband, 22-year-old Adam Tisdale, from the home for their safety. They were treated for natural gas inhalation at St. Tammany Parish Hospital.

According to doctors, the Tisdales would have comatose if they had been exposed to the gas for another 30 minutes, West said. He added that if the girl had not left the residence then the entire family would have died.

A representative from the Office of Child Support was called to the home to inspect living conditions to determine if the child should remain with her parents, West said. The child support inspector found the floor had collapsed in the living room and that one of the bedrooms had split away from the mainframe of the house.

The utilities were shut off at the home.

Both Tisdales were charged with child desertion, a child in need of care and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, West said.

Authorities said the child is in her grandmother's care while child services determines what is best for her.