Mom Abandons Sick 4-Year-Old in Walgreens

WAUWATOSA, WI - The mother of a sick 4-year-old boy abandoned him at a Wauwatosa Walgreens store last Thursday when a pharmacist wouldn't fill her prescription due to lack of funds.

The woman later told police she was frustrated with the system when her prescription payment card came up short and, according to the police report, said "she was not going to take (her child) home without the medication because she did not want to deal with him crying all night."

"Furthermore," the report goes on, "she stated that if something worse were to happen" to her child, "like getting more sick or dying, it would not be on her hands but on Walgreens hands because they refused to provide her the medications."

According to the police reports, the woman went to the Walgreens store at 2275 N. Mayfair Rd. in Wauwatosa about 8 p.m., with her 4-year-old, and asked to fill two prescriptions.

She presented insurance cards and a flexible spending account card, the pharmacist said, but the total still came up with a cash balance of $75.

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The woman became upset, the pharmacist said, and would not pay the balance out of pocket. The pharmacist offered to try to settle the card discrepancy with the woman's bank — she said it ought to have been fully and automatically funded — but he said that at that hour it probably couldn't be settled until the next day.

With that, he said, the woman became irate and said she was not going to take home a sick boy without his medication — and then she left without him.

A frightened little boy; an adamant mother

A Wauwatosa police officer said that the little boy seemed scared to have been left behind, and that he had an occasional cough but otherwise seemed "well fed, groomed and taken care of overall." The boy gave the officer his father's cell phone number.

The officer called the father and learned that the boy's mother did not have a cell phone number, and he agreed to pick the boy up as soon as he could, as he was just leaving Wauwatosa West High School.

While waiting for the father, the officer reached the boy's mother on her home phone, and she told him she was "frustrated with the system" because she'd gone to the doctor, dropped off the prescription, and felt her bank should have had her health care card covered.

She told the police officer she was not going to take a sick child home and deal with him crying all night and, as said above, did not want it on her hands but on Walgreens if her child should sicken more or die.

The boy's father arrived at the Walgreens and told officers that while his wife had some history of domestic problems, nothing like this had happened before, and he felt comfortable enough taking the boy home.

Wauwatosa police agreed only after contacting Milwaukee County Child Welfare to open a case file, and an agent called back to say that an investigation would be opened.

A records check showed that the boy's mother has an open case of domestic violence/abuse pending in which she is accused of biting the boy's father.