Toddler Brings Heroin, Lots Of It, To Day Care Leading To Arrest Of Dad

Any time “toddler” and “heroin” turn up in the same sentence, it’s a pretty good bet that nothing good is going to come of it. And that was the case for a 27-year-old New Jersey dad who sent his toddler to day care carrying a reported 48 packets of heroin.

The child showed up Monday morning at Michael’s Energy Center in Paterson, New Jersey, dropped off by dad Phillips Young of East 30th Street in Paterson. Michael’s Energy Center is non-profit preschool day care facility that advertises “childhood education at its best.” Children who attend the preschool range in age from 18-month old toddlers to four-year-old preschoolers.

The toddler with the heroin was reported to be two years old.

An employee at Michael’s Energy Center was helping the toddler off with its jacket when the heroin became evident. When they found the 48 glassine envelopes filled with heroin in the toddlers jacket, workers at the preschool immediately called police.

What they did not do, unfortunately, was tell the parents of other children who attend the school about the heroin discovery, and that left some of those parents upset.

“And my babies are in there, are you kidding me,?” said one parent Countswella Lampley, when informed of the toddler carrying heroin — hearing it first from a local TV news reporter.

Another parent, whose name was not given, made a pretty good point. “Any of our kids could have went in there and put it in their mouth,” the parent said. “What do kids do? They put things in their mouth.”

The TV reporter spoke to another mom, Lakeemah James, who also said the preschool told her nothing about the heroin on the toddler’s person.

When cops showed up they learned that Young had dropped the child off. He was arrested and charged with child endangerment and is now held on $85,000 bail. No word on whether the toddler’s heroin was for Young’s own use, for sale — or some other purpose.