Toddler tied with rope in back of pickup. ''What's the problem? He's strapped in''.

**Marv** · May 21st, 2012, 05:48 AM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...rapped-in.html

Police in Northumberland were stunned when they stopped a man for driving with a toddler tied to the back of his van with rope.

Their astonishment reached new heights when the unnamed man, located in a fish and chip shop while leaving the toddler unattended in the back of the van, failed to understand that he had done anything wrong.

The man had driven to to collect coal at a nearby beach and had even loaded up the back of the van beside the young boy with coal and other debris which could have crushed or injured him.
[...]

One witness told the Sunday Mirror: 'If the driver had slammed the brakes he could have been crushed by bags of coal. But when police questioned ther driver he just said, "What's the problem, he's strapped in" and pointed to the rope. No one could quite believe what they were seeing.'

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: 'The driver was spoken to by the police at the scene and inquiries are ongoing.'

It is an offence punishable with a £500 fine for driving with a child without an appropriate seat belt or restraint.

**newstarshipsmell** · May 21st, 2012, 08:17 AM

One of these days I'm going to just plain run out of steam to power my outrage over these fucking morons' genetically non-propagatory behavior...

**Starbuck** · May 21st, 2012, 09:11 AM

Shakes head at stupidity. What the Frak?

**Zazen** · May 21st, 2012, 09:56 AM

Marv, I've heard that Northumberland is generally viewed as bumpkin land by many British; is that true? At least, that's what my ex-brother in law always said.

This kinda reminds me of this one time I was driving through Iowa. I stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere to fill up, and a pickup truck came in after me. There was a guy and his chocolate lab in the truck's cab and I glanced back and about lost it. In the back of the truck, there was a woman in overalls and wildly windblown blonde hair hopping out. Dayum.

In any case, I do hope the mother of that cute chubby-cheeked little kid kicks this guy out to the kerb. (see what I did there?)

**Icy** · May 21st, 2012, 10:01 AM

*shakes head*

**cubby** · May 21st, 2012, 10:15 AM

This reminds me of a story about my ex husband's ex wife, she came to our house for soemthing one day and she had about 3 other kids with her plus her own 2. (They were all between 3 and 6 years old.) She had her daughter seat belted in the cab of the truck and the rest, all boys, were riding in the back of the pickup in a dog box. A box big enough to hold 2 coon dogs. I freaked out and asked her what the hell she was doing and she said they wanted to ride back there. When she left I called the cops, but they just stopped her made her put them all in the front, even tho there was not enough room for all of them. This was about 30 years ago and the kids did manage to grow up. But it was a miracle.