A New Jersey woman has been arrested after a 12-year-old child was found chained to a fan inside a Newark home.
Wanser Brown, 66, is accused of two counts of endangering a child’s welfare after police visited a property in the 500 block of Clinton Avenue for a wellness check on the 12-year old boy at 10:10 a.m. on February 10.
When officers located the boy, who was under the foster care of Brown, he was confined to a bedroom and tethered to a fan by chains and padlocks, according to Newark’s public safety director Anthony Ambrose.
The boy was taken to University Hospital for evaluation and then released to the custody of the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency.
It is not clear how long the boy had been tied up. Ambrose said a teacher had asked Newark police to conduct a wellness check on the 12-year-old.
“Thanks to the courage of a concerned teacher, who requested a wellness check, this foster child was rescued,” Ambrose added via WABC.
“We are investigating this incident along with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office to gather as much information as possible about how and why this child was put in this horrific situation. We are pleased that he’s now safe, and we are grateful that his teacher suspected that he was in need of police assistance.”
