Florida police officers arrested a couple from Fort Myers during a traffic check in the Keys, Florida, after discovering a 2-year-old boy inside the car covered in cockroaches and smelled like feces.
After receiving several reports of reckless driving in Monroe County, New York. The Sheriff’s Office stopped the Chevrolet sedan that was reported to drive by 22-year-old Zachary Sousa Engren.
According to sheriff’s office spokesperson Adam Linhardt, deputies discovered the vehicle in “squalid” conditions that were “filthy” and “loaded with used food containers, clothes, and trash.” He added that the deputies also discovered boxes of insects and reptiles in the trunk. The boy was seated in a car, along with Twenty-year-old Jillian Larae Meyers and a 24-year-old man was also in the car.
Engren and Meyers told the officers that the boy was in their care.
Office Linhardt stated, “Both suspects said the child was in their care and stated they had diapers, but deputies found no diapers in the car.”
“Both individuals change their statement several times regarding when the child last ate. All three adults said they were living in the vehicle.”
The 24-year-old man, who was not arrested, said the group was in the Keys to “collect reptiles and insects,” the sheriff’s office said.
The spokesperson in his statement said, officers also discovered real and synthetic marijuana in the vehicle as well as a.40-caliber Glock handgun under the passenger seat.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was given custody of the toddler.
Engren and Meyer were charged with child abuse, possession of marijuana, possession of synthetic marijuana, and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.
Engren was also accused of having a firearm in his possession as a felon, while Meyers is accused of having a hidden weapon in his possession without a license.
