Hungry Ohio boy tried to sell teddy bear for food, police say

[jnelsoninjax]

A 7-year-old Ohio boy who hadn’t eaten anything for days was trying to sell his teddy bear to get money for food, police said.

Franklin police officer Steve Dunham told WLWT-TV on Thursday he found the boy in front of a CVS store last Sunday afternoon.

The hungry child’s parents, Tammy and Michael Bethel, face child endangering charges after investigators said they found four older boys at the family home living among garbage, cat urine and cockroaches.

Tammy Bethel has since written on the Facebook page of the Franklin Police Department that she denies the allegations. Yet Dunham said the sight of the boy peddling a teddy bear upset him so much he took him to a Subway to get something to eat right away.

“It broke my heart. He told me that he was trying to sell his stuffed animal to get money for food because he hadn't eaten in several days,” Dunham told WLWT.

The caring cop and the boy “said a little prayer and ate dinner together,” he added.

Two other officers went to the Bethels' home after Dunham took the boy to the police station in the small town roughly 15 miles outside Dayton, Franklin police told the Journal-News of Butler and Warren counties.

The officers found liquor bottles, garbage and cat urine in the squalor of the Main St. house, according to a police report obtained by the newspaper.

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Investigators believe the house showed a “a substantial risk of health and safety by neglecting the cleanliness in the residence, having a large amount of bugs and spoiled food throughout the residence, not having properly prepared and packaged food for the minor children to eat, and allowing a 7-year-old child to wander from the residence without their permission or knowledge, in an attempt to locate food.”

Child welfare officials removed all five children from their parents’ care and placed them with other relatives. A judge ordered the Bethels not to have any contact with the children, according to the newspaper.

Both Tammy and Michael Bethel face five counts of child endangerment charges ahead of a court appearance next month.They pleaded not guilty.

Tammy Bethel went on the Franklin police Facebook page Friday to say that her house is normally clean and the CVS where police found her son is very close to her home. She said the house was dirty after her kids had friends over in recent days.

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“The cop just popped up on the wrong day I hadn't had a chance to clean the mess that all them kids had made and yes I was arguing with my kids to help clean the mess up,” Bethel wrote. “BTW my kids didn't even eat the food that the cops brought them because they had just ate.”

Other users jeered her and her husband in response. One of them politely asked her to “please stop” posting on the page.

“You're trying to defend the indefensible,” the user wrote. “Just pick yourself up, own it, and be a better parent. Nobody hates you. But you need to do better.”

The police department said a local church, St Vincent De Paul of 115 S. Main St., is accepting donations of money to help the children involved in the case. Franklin Police Chief Russell Whitman praised the officers who had investigated Sunday in an interview with WLWT.

“Hopefully, these officers’ actions changed these kids’ lives and maybe changed the lives of the parents, to become better parents,” Whitman said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/hungry-ohio-boy-sell-teddy-bear-food-police-article-1.2750327

[Hum]

I'll give him $100

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

There are ways to get aid, like welfare, food stamps and aid to dependent children. I feel sorry for the kids and maybe the parents will learn how to do the proper thing or they will lose their kids. This is what is never covered about the Police in MSM.

[Memphis]

How did we get political over this article? This article has little to do with government safety nets and everything to do with child neglect and possibly mental health problems.

[Defcon]

2 hours ago, sidroc said:

How did we get political over this article? This article has little to do with government safety nets and everything to do with child neglect and possibly mental health problems.

Its another aspect of the same root cause. And this is nothing to do with safety nets its about wealth inequality and a system designed to perpetuate it.

[Memphis]

1 hour ago, Defcon said:

Its another aspect of the same root cause. And this is nothing to do with safety nets its about wealth inequality and a system designed to perpetuate it.

The kind of people discussed in this article would not benefit at all from any changes to the class system or government safety nets. They might benefit from the right mental health treatment however. I am not discounting at all that groups within the lower socioeconomic class could not benefit from these things, on the contrary im sure it is needed badly. However, there is also a segment of people that nothing will help due to mental health issues that need a healthcare remedy first and foremost.

[compl3x]

17 minutes ago, sidroc said:

They might benefit from the right mental health treatment however. 

 

That is why it is political. Love it or hate it most societal issues have political components.

 

Governments legislate on a range of issues which are affected by or from mental health issues.  Governments ignore those underlining issues at their own peril. 

 

 

 

As far as this particular story goes: utterly heartbreaking.

[Memphis]

15 minutes ago, compl3x said:

 

That is why it is political. Love it or hate it most societal issues have political components.

 

Governments legislate on a range of issues which are affected by or from mental health issues.  Governments ignore those underlining issues at their own peril. 

 

 

 

As far as this particular story goes: utterly heartbreaking.

In this sense absolutely, mental health is a hard problem to tackle though, and by hard I dont mean it requires lots of money or changes that the rich would be against, no mental health reform could have an unlimited budget and support from all parties and it still would not be all that effective due to many many patients being not at all cooperative with basically all possible ways to treat them. That said, there is still basic common sense things we do not do.

[T3X4S]

6 hours ago, Hum said:

I'll give him $100

I would gladly donate - but something tells me it wont go to his and/or his siblings' food - 

So - no food in the house, cat feces and urine everywhere, place is deplorable - but she has a smartphone and/or computer to post on facebook?  (Doesnt it seem strange that she decided to post on facebook of all things in an attempt to communicate to the police?)

[T3X4S]

5 hours ago, Defcon said:

If you'r poor its your own damn fault, its because you didn't work hard enough and are lazy....

True - but its not the kids' faults their parents are pieces of crap.

Only the bible blames kids for their parents' mistakes - (10 generations I think is the statute of limitations for that nice guy upstairs)

[Titoist]

10 minutes ago, T3X4S said:

I would gladly donate - but something tells me it wont go to his and/or his siblings' food - 

So - no food in the house, cat feces and urine everywhere, place is deplorable - but she has a smartphone and/or computer to post on facebook?  (Doesnt it seem strange that she decided to post on facebook of all things in an attempt to communicate to the police?)

Some people have their priorities mixed up. I have been sitting on a train well dressed and a woman would come onto the train, and she would be unwashed from head to toe, clothing all ripped and dirty and I noticed her shoes were missing soles. It was literally the top of her shoes, the bottom was barefoot. However, she was talking on a brand new iPhone 6S.

[compl3x]

16 minutes ago, T3X4S said:

True - but its not the kids' faults their parents are pieces of crap.

Only the bible blames kids for their parents' mistakes - (10 generations I think is the statute of limitations for that nice guy upstairs)

I think Defcon might have been being very sarcastic. 

 

27 minutes ago, sidroc said:

In this sense absolutely, mental health is a hard problem to tackle though, and by hard I dont mean it requires lots of money or changes that the rich would be against, no mental health reform could have an unlimited budget and support from all parties and it still would not be all that effective due to many many patients being not at all cooperative with basically all possible ways to treat them. That said, there is still basic common sense things we do not do.

 

Right, but for decades mental health has been ignored, minimised, pushed aside, or dismissed. I can make completely dispassionate arguments about why focusing on mental health is actually a cost saving measure for governments and societies. Billions of dollars in productivity, health care, taxation etc. in my country (and I would guess yours and everyone else's) is lost due to mental health problems which early intervention programmes could remedy. You probably know that not all mental health issues are dealing with people who are severely mentally ill (schitzophrenia, for example) but a lot of it is depression and anxiety, which, left untreated becomes worse and worse and worse. Mental health is not a rich or poor issue. Plenty of rich people commit suicide or engage in substance abuse to numb their pain.

 

My understanding is that mental illness is the basis for so many societal problems: poor school performance (setting the child up for a difficult life), drug abuse, domestic violence, crime, suicide, etc. Intervene early and you likely minimise the amount of problems which would other wise manifest later. This isn't a controversial political opinion and it is likely one most people would agree with so it escapes me why the voting public still treat these problems with indifference.

[FloatingFatMan]

Why do people assume this sort of thing is just down to mental health problems? Maybe the parents are just complete skanks?  It happens you know... Some people are just plain old dirty and mean to their kids.

 

[Defcon]

The general attitude in US society is to see any departure from norm as a defect and to punish it rather than seek to help or tolerate. This is why prisons are viewed here as a way to punish people, the concept of rehabilitation simply does not exist and out govt as well as citizens are very vindictive. The same applies in a lesser sense to mental health, these people are shunned even though we think our society more advanced than the third world we love to insult. 

 

There is a mindset in most of Asia/Middle East to treat strangers with respect, to treat a guest with honor etc, that is totally lacking here, we celebrate superficial niceties but people are very rarely nice to each other. It used to be so earlier from what I hear. We are a society governed by fear and hate. 

[jnelsoninjax]

6 hours ago, T3X4S said:

I would gladly donate - but something tells me it wont go to his and/or his siblings' food - 

So - no food in the house, cat feces and urine everywhere, place is deplorable - but she has a smartphone and/or computer to post on facebook?  (Doesnt it seem strange that she decided to post on facebook of all things in an attempt to communicate to the police?)

I thought the same thing, of all the venues that could be used to communicate, she decided to post on Facebook, where the whole world can see her stupidity and judge her, she's going to have a hard time defending herself when the DA uses her facebook posts against her.