We need to know what kind of drugs you
took today. I didn't take any drugs.
What did you do today? Drugs. What did
you do? Because you're not very lucid.
You're very slow. Did you thank my
deputies for locating your child? Did
you thank anybody? That's something a
normal mother who wasn't impaired would
do. Okay. Stop being so aggressive.
You're not going to tell me what to do
first of all. Okay. Go ahead and stand
up and just put your hands behind your
back. On February 26th, 2025, police
responded to a situation regarding a
4-year-old boy found wandering the
streets alone with a dirty diaper and no
shoes.
Good afternoon. Hi. Hi. Hi.
Where'd you find this handsome young
man? Here the street. Okay.
What's your name?
I got all kinds of stuff. We don't want
to blame that. He acts like he's um a
little autistic. Yeah, I think
maybe nobody recogniz
you don't know your name.
Hello. Who? What's your name? Vaseline.
Do me a favor. Keep an eye on him. I got
Hey. Hey. Give me a puppy. Turn the
pump. Come on. Come on. New pants time.
You never saw this kid before. No.
Somebody give it to me. Say so. Somebody
flagged you down. Yeah. Because the kids
in the tree and somebody I'm I'm coming
from the war. I'm parking and somebody
say, "Do you know that kid?" And I say
no because he alone in the street and
nobody know. And everybody start to come
and when I say but I call the police the
the one lady I hold him and no no no.
Okay I give it to you. You call the
police and I thank you very much for
calling. Yeah because that's the best.
Nobody know what you going to do. Call
the police. That it. Yeah that's the
best we can do. Yeah, right. figure out
where he lives cuz he didn't have a
wallet on. No, nobody's trying to knock
my phone.
Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Go. Let's
go home. Let's go home.
Yuddle
poopy. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm going
home. Big
boy. Big
boy. Big boy.
Big boy.
Excellent.
Okay.
What address is this?
Is that your mom? Is that mom?
[Music]
Is that your mom?
Is that your mom? Is that mommy? That
mommy? Yes.
No.
Let's go. Let's get out of here. You
ready to get out of here?
[Music]
Yeah. Come here.
You're not in trouble, buddy.
[Music]
Yeah.
[Applause]
15 radio.
Leave it to 16
31 man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Be
safe. Yeah. Child has been reunited with
his mother.
You need us for anything else? No. Hey.
Outstanding. Thank you so much.
Teamwork, man. You guys hit the hard
part,
man. What's your first name?
Is he on the spectrum or something? Cuz
he seemed a little nonverbal for
5-year-old.
Yeah. A little bit. Little bit. You got
him tested. No, he hasn't been fully
like tested, but the full battery, but
it kind of leaning that way. Yeah.
Okay. All right. So, how the little
Houdini get out of the house?
Don't know. Not sure. No, he
just he
has he he just opened the door. That's
it. But he's never been outside by
himself.
He's never been unoccupied at like He's
never done this before. No.
All right. You
uh might want to consider getting some
childproof locks inside. I'm going to go
on Amazon. I by today I'm going to go on
Amazon. Wait, what is your name again?
What is Marissa? And you're the mom?
Yes. Okay. Anybody else in the house?
No. Do you have anybody else that can
come to the house? We I have my mother
come to the house all the time. He has
his father.
Where's the father? Working right now.
Does he live here, too? Yeah. Yeah. What
are you under the influence of? Nothing.
Nothing? No. But uh listen, I've been
doing this for a couple of uh years, and
you're definitely under the influence of
something. I'm not 100% sure what, but
it's more than obvious. What happened to
your leg?
What?
Switching one more.
What? Who's watching him right now? If
no one's inside. No, he literally just
went inside right now. He's with me.
He's okay.
[Applause]
Okay. Do you take any medication? No.
Uh, do you have any diagnosis? No. No.
Have a seat here. We're going to talk.
I would rather be. Yeah. Well, I I would
rather for you to sit here now. Thank
you. I would I would rather be in.
That's okay. That's fine. Have a seat.
Thank you.
I can stand with him. You can leave the
door open if you want.
I don't think you understand the
seriousness of the situation.
You need to have a seat.
It's okay, baby.
So, will you be able to tell me what
happened to your leg? What do you want?
Well, everything's very low.
Everything as far as
my my foot thing. I'm sorry.
Everything is really low. As far as
what? As far as what where my like shoes
like my footstand is very low. So that's
okay. Um do you have a cell phone? Yeah.
Can you contact somebody that is in a
better condition than you? Yeah. No,
leave the door open. Yeah.
Marissa, where are you?
All right. Come back this way. Marissa.
Hi. What? Excuse me.
31. Go ahead.
No, you're not going
What is it?
Come here, baby. Come here. Come here.
Come here, baby. Kid doesn't want to
even be with her.
Nope. Who's she calling my uncle? Kid
doesn't want to even be with her.
Nope. Who's she calling? Somebody that
is not as high as she is. Mom,
grandparent, somebody. I asked to get
somebody who's not on that high. When's
the last time you seen your child?
Today. What time? You're 51 22 as well.
What time?
What time was the last time you seen
your child? Hey buddy, you okay?
She go get your car. You like puppy
puppies? No, I have cops in my house.
You like puppy puppies?
Yeah, they're thinking.
Come on, let's go see the puppy.
Okay. Who'd you call? 12.
Who'd you call? My friend. Friend. You
have a a mom, a dad. Are you calling? My
dad doesn't live in the US. Okay.
Where's your mom? Where's his grandma?
She doesn't live in the city.
Where's your closest family member? Not
your friend. I don't have a close
family.
Okay. Sit right here. Bring the puppy.
How old are you?
How old is he? Four. Four. He say four.
Is he in school? He's six.
Are you working right now? No. Okay. Is
there a reason why he's not in BPK? It's
because he missed the like final call
for it. Okay.
Um, when was the last time he saw a
pediatrician?
Uh, I'd have to go on my phone and then
have to check. Was it this year, last
year? No, this year for sure. And there
was no evaluation for any type of
special needs
here.
So yeah, dude. Oh, look. You want one of
those?
You want that?
What do you say? Say thank you.
Put it right where it goes. Okay. Say
thank you.
There you go, buddy. There you go. Say
thank you. That's awesome.
That's awesome. Cool, man. Cool. Yeah.
Say thank you. Yeah.
Cool. All right.
Have a seat here and then we're going to
take him inside to play with the doggy.
Not you, buddy. Your mom. No, we don't
have a dog. No, we brought him a police
dog to cuddle up with. No, we Is it
mommy? Yes, of course.
Let's go inside. Okay.
Wow. Wow.
Come here.
[Applause]
How far away is your friend? Confirming
you're on the 1050.
10 minutes. 10 minutes.
11. We got one.
Uh, we took little guy inside with the
the with the therapy dog. Okay, that'll
keep him busy. Tried stealing everything
on my belt at least twice. She's got
pinpoint pupils. She can't stand up.
She's fallen and bleeding on her leg.
Yeah. She can't explain how she got the
wound on her leg. Yeah. And she was a
little sluggish. How long the kid's been
missing and she can't remember the last
time she's seen him. Sometime today.
Sometime today. Yeah. So, what do you
think? It's a good start. I'm thinking
might be a little neglect going on.
Yeah, he's high as a kite. Yeah, I
didn't smell anything in the house when
the door opened. So, it might be vaping
pills or something. Vaping her pills.
So, she looks like she might have to get
medically cleared. Definitely DCF call.
So, an immediate one, I would think.
We'll see what this guy is like when he
gets here. But the kid has special
needs, obviously. And he's Yeah, cuz he
they said he was Oh, for like man
missing dirty diaper, unattentive mom,
obviously high on drugs and she's fallen
and doesn't know how she's hurt herself.
So, ma'am, can you come back and sit
back down over here for me?
Yeah. So, Marissa, yes.
Your child is wandering around the
street. You don't know where he is. You
don't know how long he's been gone. He
wasn't gone very long because But you
don't know how long he's been gone.
He wasn't gone very long because why?
Was he gone 5 minutes? Was he gone an
hour and a half? No, he was not gone an
hour and a half. And how do you know?
Because the last time I made a phone
call was at 2:55. Okay.
It's longer than that now. But prior to
that, almost an hour exactly. But prior
to that, I did go on the phone, so he
wasn't gone longer than that.
And he was down the street. Does your
ring doorbell work? It's dead.
Run yet? I did. Uh, no valid DLC's tag,
nothing to mention. How long have you
lived in Palm Beach County?
I mean,
ballpark
over 15 years. 15 years. How long have
you lived here in this apartment? Maybe
four or five months. Years. Years.
Years. Okay. And in that time, how many
times has your kid gone running off?
Never. No, he's three years old. He's
four. Four? Yeah. He's never gone
running off. We've been here for over 4
years. Our landlord used to live across
the street. He passed away due to co.
Okay. We need to know what kind of drugs
you took today. I didn't take any drugs.
Drugs. What did you do? Because you're
not very lucid. You're very slow. No,
I'm very slow because I want to make
sure that whatever is going on like I'm
telling you based on my training
experience, 21 years in law enforcement,
you're high. I'm not high. You fell and
you're gushing blood out of your leg and
you have no idea how you did that. I can
promise you you didn't know your child's
missing and you live in about a 600 foot
apartment.
So, I need to know what kind of drugs
you're on. I can promise you I don't do
drugs. I've never done drugs. I don't do
anything. No. No overthe counter like
sleep medication. Nothing. I can't do
drugs. I don't do drugs. So right now
sober is enough. So I Yeah, I don't do
drugs. I can't do drugs. Like I can
promise you there is not like a single
thing that Is that a storage closet?
Yes. What about alcohol? You can check
my storage closet if you please.
No. No. It's not
Sorry. Have you had any alcohol today? I
had a drink. Okay, but that's it. What
did you drink?
Was it beer? Was it What was it? Just a
drink. And then
like was it What kind of alcohol was it?
Beer. What flavor? What was it? You're
very funny and I don't like you. I just
didn't pick that up. That's okay.
You're not alone. No, I know I'm not
alone. Um, yeah. No, he's never gotten
out of the house. He's never done
anything like
this. So, this is like a first. What
about What about what you have drank?
We're trying to figure out why you are
so you appear to be intoxicated. Okay.
You just um avoided answering a simple
question about what you have drank.
Well, you avoided it. Okay. Any logical
person would just say you either avoided
it or you intent unintentionally avoided
it because you got something wrong with
you. The way you're coming at me is very
well because you're very aggressive. So
So what I'll tell you Marissa. Marissa.
Yes. We're police. I know. I understand
that. What a kids wandering around. A
very good friend of mine. I have very
good friends in the department. Let just
just give you a little perspective,
right? Our job is to investigate crimes.
Yes. And if we got a four-year-old
running around with dirty diapers who
can't tell us where he lives or who mom
is or anything else because he's really
essentially non-verbal, that's a
potential crime. So, we're investigating
a crime. That's why we're asking you
questions because it could have been
something simple like, "Yeah, he just
snuck out when you weren't looking."
Well, no, he did. Or you because of your
your drinking. No, you rendered yourself
incapable of taking good care of him and
he snuck out. Well, no. I promise you
there's never been a time
where I've had something to like indulge
where he snuck out. Okay.
But yes, he did today and I'm
horribly unfortunately like
Do you remember when you had a drink?
Was it home? Was it like did you go out?
Okay. Did not go out. 911. So it was
here. Yeah. Okay. And it was one drink.
Do you remember what it was or you just
don't want to tell us? No, I remember
what it was, but I feel a little bit
very pressured.
Well, we're we're pressure. We're
pressured as well. We're pressured as
well. So, you know, you're extremely
Yes, I do remember. However,
so he's never done this before. So,
Okay. So, Marissa, what what could we do
to make you feel more comfortable to
answer these questions? Well, cuz we get
excited about little kids. That's No, I
know. And I get that. I 100% like I'm a
mama bear, so I'm like overly like
getting into things.
You could start
by stop being so aggressive. You're not
going to tell me what to do first of
all. Okay. Go ahead and stand up and
just put your hands behind your back.
Okay. Well, I will. Yep. Yeah, you will.
To stand up. You will. Okay. We'll see.
We'll see. We'll see how that works. We
tried to be very nice and try to figure
out your situation. All right. Take a
jacket off. Take this sweater off.
You're not It's not very All right.
Well, you can't take it to jail with
you. Put you in a nice outfit. Can we
get you some shorts? My actual shirt. I
can go grab some. No, you're not. You're
in our custody now. Okay. Well, see,
this is not necessary. It is. And my
friend's not here. You cannot put us at
ease that you are able to take care of
your child and it's limited by your
actions and what happened today that you
are not able to take care of your child.
Do you understand that? No, I am not.
You are not. Yeah. So the technical term
is allay our fears. We tried talking to
you. You said we were aggressive. You
avoided our questions. We don't have
time for you. Aggressive. It's you're
being very very mean. No. I just want to
make sure your son is taken care of. And
I wish you had that his interest in your
mind. I do. I do have his sit back down.
Sit back down.
It would be in my desk, but which room?
You want to have EMS come back and treat
this or you want to They're going to
medically clear it, right? I'm just You
going to take her freestanding? Okay.
This is crazy. You are not in the right
state to take care of a child. I am.
That's why we were here today. We tried
to have you put our fears at ease. You
cannot You cannot explain yourself or
you're unwilling. I can explain myself.
you chose not to listen to me. And I
said he was fine. This was a one time
off. However, you came very
aggressive, so I didn't
feel at ease.
Okay, understandable. Did you thank my
deputies for locating your child? Did
you thank anybody? That's something a
normal mother who wasn't impaired would
do. Okay.
You are very nonchalant.
My wife's best friend is coming to help
if I can. Or let's talk to you over
here.
John, you want to come talk? She's on
something. She's impaired. Something's
going on. What's the What's the history
here? All I know I know she only drinks.
She drinks. Okay. I know it's not drugs.
So, long story short, child's found
wandering the street over there, dirty
diaper, obviously afraid, nonverbal, you
obviously special needs of some sort.
Um, we come in contact with that, go
knocking door to door. The deputies do a
great job by finding the mom, but she's
upon first contact, obviously
something's wrong. She's either
intoxicated, she's fallen, she's
bleeding on her left leg. She doesn't
know how she's fallen. And so these are
things that have us very um you know
nervous about leaving a child with her.
So with what's happened here with the
with the kid being gone and not even
knowing and the state that he's in, it's
ob it's a crime. Okay. So she's going to
go to jail. Um we obviously are
concerned about the care of the child,
who we can leave this child with. Have
you guys ever taken care of this kid
before? My wife watches him all the
time. Okay. Does she watch him here or
your house? here. She's came he's came
to our house before. Is she able to come
here? I can stay here with him until she
gets here. Um
I know that he's never like seems like a
good I don't know how he got out. I
don't He never got out before. The dead
bowl locked. When you guys knocked on
the door, was it open? Uh it wasn't
here. Okay. Off the camera on the around
the corner. You can check the ring cam.
Maybe see like it's dead. Oh, is it?
Camera's dead. We tried to check it.
Asked her about it. So, what's your
first name, sir? Josh.
Yeah. I don't know what happened here,
but she does drink, but that's unlike
her.
Does she drink like a lot or just
occasionally? I know. She's been arguing
with her her husband and uh because of
the drinking. Well, he's the one with
the drinking problem. So, it's like Oh,
they both Yeah. Yeah. But he drinks more
is what I'm saying. Okay. I don't drink
at all. So, I don't understand any of
it. Yeah. You'll save a lot of money
that way. Yeah. Yeah. What's your
formula? Of course. So, the lady's down
the street changed his diaper, cleaned
him up, gave him a pair of shorts, some
socks. Yeah. So, I don't know when the
last time he ate. He's got like I don't
know, maybe like autism or something.
She's with him 24/7. You know, she
doesn't she doesn't work right now. So,
she stays with the kid. Her husband
works.
All right. Well, I appreciate the the
backstory on this cuz she doesn't like
me. Yeah. Hasn't announced as much
either. Yeah, she may not seem like it
right now, but she's really good girl.
You know, she's always uh
her and my wife were bartenders back in
10 years ago when I met both. But good
people. I don't know why the hell she's
drinking like this, but
All right. Yeah, of course. I'll stay
with them. I really appreciate that. I
call my wife. I have her come over and
relieve me.
No,
you don't want any shoes? Yeah. Okay.
[ __ ] I'm going sit here with the
kid.
So, he said to us that you have a
drinking problem.
So, hopefully, you know, this is a
wakeup call and your son's okay and you
can get some help for that.
Okay. This could have ended bad. You
could have got hit by a car. You could
have gone missing in one of these
waterways. Is he autistic? No. What
What's his uh
condition? Is he just special needs?
Just let the jail take it out.
Yeah. So, he has no special needs, no
nothing.
All right. Do better, ma'am.
For your
son. There's only one way and it's up
from here.