HUTCHINSON, Kan. � Two children have been removed from their home after a man reportedly ran a clothes dryer with the toddlers inside.

A 3-year-old boy was treated for second-degree burns, but a 2-year-old girl was not injured after the Nov. 28 incident, the Reno County district attorney's office said.

Aron J. Pritchard, 27, was charged Tuesday with one felony count of child abuse and another of aggravated endangering a child. Bond was set at $750,000.


Police investigators alleged the man stuffed the children into the dryer and turned it on, reportedly after the boy wet his pants. The boy was not treated for his injuries until he was taken into protective custody on Dec. 6, the district attorney's office said in a news release.

In a news release Wednesday, Reno County Prosecutor Keith Schroeder said no further information would be immediately released in the case. But he told The Hutchinson News on Tuesday that he did not know how long the children were in the dryer.

Pritchard and a cousin were arrested in late November when police found the two men on top of a grain elevator in Hutchinson, with backpacks full of beer and alcohol.

"...well, there was Pritchard, naked singing on top of a grain elevator. I asked Pritchard, three sheets to the wind, how he got up there. He said he flew up there. I had to fly up there and get 'em down, he was about half crazy."

From In re N.L.G., a minor child, No. 06-06-00066-CV (Tex. App.-Texarkana Dec. 14, 2006, no pet. h.):

"On Sunday morning, January 2, 2005, police responded to a rancher's call that people were on top of a tank in his field and "acting very strangely." Police found Rachel standing on top of a ten-foot storage tank and holding her then-approximately six-month-old son. Rachel was high on methamphetamine and told police she and the baby had been out all night and were being chased by a pack of wild dogs, which were actually cattle in an adjacent field. Despite temperatures in the forties, the baby was naked except for his diaper. The baby was taken to the hospital, and Rachel was arrested. From jail, and while still high and "incoherent," Rachel told a Child Protective Services (CPS) [footnote omitted] investigator she had lost her son for about two hours the prior night in the woods. The CPS worker testified she observed that the baby was dirty and "looked like he hadn't eaten in a while." The emergency room nurse testified that the baby was dehydrated and malnourished. The baby also tested positive for trace amounts of methamphetamine.
"With Rachel in jail on child endangerment, and Thomas in jail awaiting sentencing on a prior conviction for burglary, CPS placed N.L.G. in foster care. Sixteen months later, CPS, now joined by N.L.G.'s foster parents as intervenors, went to trial to terminate Rachel's and Thomas' parental rights. . . ."

The full opinion is online at Sixth Court of Appeals' Website.

Procreation should be licensed. Period.

P.S. Think of the surcharges THAT could generate.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scott Brumley:
Procreation should be licensed. Period.

P.S. Think of the surcharges THAT could generate.

---

Dude, you've been in this business long enough to know they ain't a gonna pay.