A mother in Camden, NJ has been accused of doling out a brutal punishment to her 10-year-old son; cops say she and her boyfriend chained the boy to a radiator for two straight weeks. Both have since been arrested and charged with child endangerment.
Florence Pollard, 31, and Brian Craig, 29, are accused of holding Pollard's young son captive in her bedroom, reportedly chaining his ankle to a radiator pipe and holding his wrists together with zip ties. The boy, identified only as M.P., managed to break free and run away from home on Monday, prompting his mother to notify the cops that he was missing. When officers located him at a neighbor's house a few blocks away, he told them he'd been chained to the pipe as punishment.
Police officers investigated Pollard's house, and discovered the metal chain and lock allegedly used to restrain him. "This level of depravity inflicted upon a child is chilling,” Camden Police Chief J. Scott Thomson said in a statement. “We’re just thankful that the child had an opportunity to escape and report what has been going on so we could arrest this couple and put a stop to their cruelty.”
Both Pollard and Craig were arrested on Monday, and are being held on $50,000 bond. Pollard has five other children, two girls and three boys ranging from 11 years old to 7 months, and officials say M.P. and his siblings have been taken into custody by state child-welfare officials.
