Candy from an idiot

Finding himself crossing paths with some of Newark, New Jersey’s finest while carrying a few bags of blow, 25-year-old Shaheed Wright immediately assumed they were onto him. Rather than see his product go to waste, he thought to hide it for later retrieval. His vessel: the pockets of the jacket being worn by his four-year-old son. As though turning one’s child into a drug mule wasn’t wrong-headed enough, Wright told the boy that the bags contained candy. Surely no child would give that a second thought, right? Wrong, Wright.

Once the boy arrived to daycare, he shared his treats with friends and, before the recess bell had a chance to ring, a teacher had noticed one little girl gleefully gnawing on one of the bags. Police were called, as was an ambulance which took the girl, Wright’s son and two other boys, all assumed to have eaten Wright’s stash, to hospital.

Police said all the children were unharmed. Wright didn’t fare as well. He faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child, possession with intent to distribute and employing a juvenile in a drug scheme, among others. Wright said he was “deeply sorry.”

by SCOTT SAXON