Mom, Boyfriend Chain 10-Year-Old to Radiator: Police

A mom and her boyfriend are charged with grossly mistreating the woman's 10-year-old son.

Camden Police arrested Florence M. Pollard, 31, and her 29-year-old boyfriend, Brian L. Craig after Pollard's son, M.P. said the couple kept him chained by the ankle to a radiator pipe for two weeks.

Police were called to the home on the 2700-block of Cramer Street Monday by the couple who reported that M.P. had run away.

The boy was found shortly after and that's when he told police of his captivity. He said that he was forced to sleep with his ankle chained and that his hands were occasionally zip-tied, according to police.

Authorities searched the home and found the metal chain and lock used to restrain M.P. The chain, detectives say, was attached to a radiator in the mother's bedroom.

"This level of depravity inflicted upon a child is chilling," Camden Police Chief J. Scott Thomson said in a press release.

Both Pollard and her boyfriend are charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child and Criminal Restraint.

They are in county jail.

"To treat a child this way is inhuman," said Sgt. Janell Simpson.

M.P. and his five siblings are in the care of the state.

"He could have been seriously injured or died had this continued, so to get this child and his brothers and sisters out of that environment was critical," said Simpson.