Boy, 7, tries to sell his teddy bear to buy food

A southwest OH police officer has befriended a 7-year-old boy police say was trying to sell a teddy bear to buy food.

According to an officer’s report, the children’s parents created “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”. The boy told the officer that he hadn’t eaten in several days.

Officer Steve Dunham found the 7-year-old boy in front of a CVS drugstore trying to sell the toy. The house was said to be full of garbage, liquor bottles and cat urine. He took care of the 7-year-old, comforted him, and provided him with a safe haven that his own parents never even gave him.

Warren County Children Services removed the children, who are now under the care of their relatives, and a judge barred the parents from contacting them. The parent are not allowed to get in touch with the children. The boys’ parents, Tammy and Michael Bethel were charged with 10 counts of child endangering.

Dunham says he was just doing his job, but he made a new friend in the process.

Police said the 7-year-old boy and his brothers, ages 11, 12, 15 and 17, have been removed from the home and are now staying with family members.

So the officer took the boy to a Subway restaurant next door and picked up sandwiches before returning to the police department to have dinner and share a prayer with the child.

“I came back to check on him and he was hiding”, Dunham said.

“[We] would like to go home at the end of the day feeling like [we’ve] done something positive and, you know, had some kind of positive impact”.