Man Loses Son After Mistakenly Giving Him Alcoholic Lemonade

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White Rain

White Rain

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DETROIT — A University of Michigan professor says he had no idea he'd given his 7-year-old son alcoholic lemonade at a ball game, and is furious at child-protection officials for removing his son from the home.
Christopher Ratte of Ann Arbor and his wife have filed a complaint against Child Protective Services.
Their son Leo spent two days in state custody. The father spent nearly a week outside his home before he was allowed to return.
He tells the Detroit Free Press that he'd taken his son to a Detroit Tigers game a few weeks ago. He didn't notice the $7 lemonade he bought contained alcohol.
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353186,00.html
 
White Rain said:
DETROIT — A University of Michigan professor says he had no idea he'd given his 7-year-old son alcoholic lemonade at a ball game, and is furious at child-protection officials for removing his son from the home.
Christopher Ratte of Ann Arbor and his wife have filed a complaint against Child Protective Services.
Their son Leo spent two days in state custody. The father spent nearly a week outside his home before he was allowed to return.
He tells the Detroit Free Press that he'd taken his son to a Detroit Tigers game a few weeks ago. He didn't notice the $7 lemonade he bought contained alcohol.
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353186,00.html
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Non alcohol lemonade is normally $7 at ball games in America? :rolleyes:

Leo was checked at a hospital. No trace of alcohol was found in his blood.
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Very strange story, White Rain. The child must not have drank very much if no alcohol showed up in his sytem.
From somebody who has never attended a major league ballgame, (I think I heard some people faint just now) Do the drinks come in disposable containers? How did the security guard know what the child was drinking?

For those of you who now have gotten back up off the floor---gimme a break--I used to play softball....alot....after school.....every chance I could......really.:angel:
 
I saw the dad on the news this afternoon. He's regained custody of his son. The dad said he had no idea that Mike's Lemonade had alcohol in it. He grabbed a beer for himself and the lemonade that was in the bottle.
There are people out there who don't know Mike's has alcohol in it.
 
Its named Mike's Hard Lemonade. Can we say "Hello?" :bang:
 
Toby said:
Its named Mike's Hard Lemonade. Can we say "Hello?" :bang:
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Apparently for a college professor, he has NO clue of what is out there. Time to expand real life outside of the classroom. That's where the real world is..... I cannot even imagine not having such a clue.
 
2185761365_0e16868b09.jpg


If I wasn't familiar with the product and watching the game, I could see just grabbing the bottle and not knowing.
 
Toby said:
Its named Mike's Hard Lemonade. Can we say "Hello?" :bang:
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I was on vacation with my son and his friend when they were 14 years old. We had stopped in this convenience store and they asked me if they could buy this lemonade and held up the bottle. I said sure. We got to the counter and the cashier, who had been watching this set up, said "You know they can't drink this?" I said 'Why" She grinned and said "It's alcoholic!" I said "NO WAY!" She said " let me show you". I was so embarassed and also upset because unless I'd inspected the bottle,with a magnifying glass,I'd never have known. She said not to worry because a lot of the kids tried this with their parents and it never failed she had to warn the parents at least twice daily. In the meantime the boys had mysteriously disappeared. THEY knew it was alcoholic but this stresssed out mother didn't have a clue! It looked like lemonade. :doh: The word Hard to me doesn't imply alcohol. I guess I've been living under a rock??:confused: but I certainly understand how this happened to this Dad.
 
I don't see how this implies that the father is stupid either. I don't go around assuming everything has alclohol in it either and I consider myself to have above average common sense. If I saw something that was obviously lemonade, it wouldn't occur to me to read the label. Yeah, "hard" might give me a clue, but that's if I even read the label to begin with.

I think the father was treated like a criminal and he didn't deserve it.
 
This stuff is not mixed in with Coke, Pepsi, or any other "cold" drink. It is refrigerated (well, here in NE) with beer/wine. Just saying... :)
 
This story makes me seethe. A 7-year-old child should not have spent two days in foster care over what, by all accounts, was an honest mistake. I hope that "agency" apologizes publically and whoever made the decision to do this gets spanked.

The security guard is a ridiculous person. Why didn't he just go up to the Dad and say "why are you letting a kid drink booze?" Then if the Dad had been belligerent or drunk or whatever - sure call the "authorities" then.

I find it terrifying that some state agency can do this. I have a good friend who did something that ticked off a neighbor, and the neighbor called DFACS on her husband for something completely stupid about their teen daughters. I don't remember what it was - it was so nothing that nothing came of it. But DFACS stirring around my home would be enough to make me want to leave the country.

Preposterous - the whole thing.
 
shopper said:
I don't see how this implies that the father is stupid either. I don't go around assuming everything has alclohol in it either and I consider myself to have above average common sense. If I saw something that was obviously lemonade, it wouldn't occur to me to read the label. Yeah, "hard" might give me a clue, but that's if I even read the label to begin with.

I think the father was treated like a criminal and he didn't deserve it.
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That's putting it lightly!
 
IMO this is a no win for social services.
If they left the boy in the care of the father pending an investigation and the child died of abuse or neglect this incident would be cited as social services not doing their job.
Social services takes the child to investigate and they are heavy handed.
Massive overreaction might be right but massive under-action costs children their lives.
 
Data05 said:
This stuff is not mixed in with Coke, Pepsi, or any other "cold" drink. It is refrigerated (well, here in NE) with beer/wine. Just saying... :)
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I figured since it was bought at a ballgame, that he bought it from a concession stand, where someone handed the bottle to him. :confused:
 
Data05 said:
Apparently for a college professor, he has NO clue of what is out there. Time to expand real life outside of the classroom. That's where the real world is..... I cannot even imagine not having such a clue.
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I had no idea either. Who would put liquor in lemonade anyway!?!?! :confused:
 
I thought from the title of the thread that the child died of alcohol poisoning! I'm glad that wasn't the case.
 
White Rain said:
DETROIT — A University of Michigan professor says he had no idea he'd given his 7-year-old son alcoholic lemonade at a ball game, and is furious at child-protection officials for removing his son from the home.
Christopher Ratte of Ann Arbor and his wife have filed a complaint against Child Protective Services.
Their son Leo spent two days in state custody. The father spent nearly a week outside his home before he was allowed to return.
He tells the Detroit Free Press that he'd taken his son to a Detroit Tigers game a few weeks ago. He didn't notice the $7 lemonade he bought contained alcohol.
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353186,00.html
Click to expand...
You are back!:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Hi! *waving* :D
 
I buy Mikes in the summer time! It's really good actually.. I think the dad here is totally innocent. I really think he just didn't know. Some people need to live a little ''outside of the box...
 
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