Source: Reuter

Boy, 4, says ate cocaine he found in fridge

MILWAUKEE, Wis., (Reuter) A fouryearold boy who was taken to the
hospital after eating cocaine told police he found the drug in the
family refrigerator. ``Right now all we have is the statement by the
child that allegedly he found this cocaine in the refrigetator,''
Sgt. Earnell Lucas, public information officer for the Milwaukee
Police Department, said Friday. He noted the police had yet to find
any evidence to support the child's claim. The child was taken to
hospital by his mother on Wednesday evening with a high fever and a
fast heart rate. A drug screen determined he had ingested cocaine,
Lucas said. ``The mother also was hospitalized because by her own
admission she had been drinking and ingesting cocaine at another
location (not her home),'' Lucas said. Lucas said the latest report
he had from the hospital was that the child was in stable condition.
A spokesman for the district attorney's office said the mother would
be charged with child neglect later Friday. ``The mother will be
charged with child neglect and a criminal complaint will be signed
sometime this afternoon,'' a spokesman for the office's sensitive
crimes division said. Lucas, of the police department, said the child
lived with his mother and two siblings in Milwaukee. ``The (other)
two children were taken into custody by the Department of Health and
Human Services,'' Lucas said, ``They are OK.'' A spokesman for the
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa declined to comment on
whether the boy was being treated at the hospital.

^REUTER@