Florida couple banished their six-year-old to a porch -- where he was made to sleep for at least three days -- 'as punishment for stealing and eating too much,' according to police.

John Haley, 47, and his wife, Stephanie Haley, 41, were charged with felony child neglect Sunday after the shivering boy knocked on a neighbor's door at 2 a.m.

He told the neighbor he had been locked out of the house and forced to sleep on the porch, sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told the Daytona Beach News-Journal . The neighbor gave the boy a blanket and potato chips and called for help.

Temperatures dipped into the 50s on the nights that the child was forced to sleep outside.

'When deputies arrived at the scene, the boy told them that he had been forced to sleep on the back porch for three days,' Davidson told the newspaper. 'He also said that he's fed rice for lunch and dinner every day, and when there's no rice, he's given lettuce to eat.'

When he's not on the porch, he's often locked in the garage and only allowed inside when he needs to use the bathroom, the boy said.

Authorities knocked on the Haley's door after talking to their son and asked them if they knew where he was. The couple said he was asleep in a bedroom.