N.J. Woman, Boyfriend Accused Of Chaining Boy To Radiator For 2 Days

CAMDEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A southern New Jersey mother and her boyfriend have been charged with chaining their 10-year-old son to a radiator pipe for two weeks.

Florence Pollard, 31, and Brian Craig, 29, were arrested Monday in Camden, according to Camden County police.

Police said the boy's mother called police shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Monday to report that her 10-year-old son had run away, CBS Philly reported Tuesday.

The child was located by a neighbor shortly thereafter when a neighbor called police to report he had found the child a few blocks away, CBS Philly reported.

When officers met the child, he told them he was chained in his mother's bedroom as punishment and had to sleep on the floor at night. He also told police his hands were occasionally restrained by plastic zip ties, according to CBS Philly.

A search of the boy's home revealed a metal chain and lock that was used to restrain the boy. The chain was attached to a radiator pipe in the bedroom.

Pollard, of Camden, and Craig, of Blackwood, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal restraint. Both were in custody Tuesday on $50,000 bond, CBS Phillly reported.

"To treat a child this way is inhuman," Camden County police Sgt. Janell Simpson, supervisor of the department Special Victims Unit, said in a news release. "He could have been seriously injured or died had this continued, so to get this child and his brothers and sisters out of that environment was critical. We will continue the investigation to determine if there have been other abuses."

Police said the boy and his five siblings – two sisters and three brothers ranging in age from 11 to 7 months – were taken into custody by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

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