Neighbor calls cops, child services on Texas mom for letting son play outside

A Texas mom is speaking out in frustration after a nosy neighbor called the cops on her for letting her 6-year-old son play outside.

Kari Anne Roy, a writer and mom of three from Austin, said the ugly incident began earlier this month after a neighbor she didn't know spotted her 6-year-old son playing in a field across the street from their house.

The woman brought the boy home, saying he needed to be inside "with an adult," Roy wrote on her blog.

"She motioned to a park bench about 150 yards from my house. A bench that is visible from my front porch," Roy wrote, adding that the boy had been with his 8-year-old sister and their dog before the girl brought the dog inside.

But the awkward encounter with the "well-meaning but overvigilant" neighbor got serious a short time later when a police officer showed up at her door.

'There are not a lot of times in one's life when you can use a word like "flabbergasted" without hyperbole, but this was one of those times,' Roy, a children's book writer, wrote on her blog.

'There are not a lot of times in one's life when you can use a word like "flabbergasted" without hyperbole, but this was one of those times,' Roy, a children's book writer, wrote on her blog.
"The police officer asked if my son had been outside alone. She asked why I thought it was OK for him to be unsupervised," Roy wrote.

"There are not a lot of times in one's life when you can use a word like 'flabbergasted' without hyperbole, but this was one of those times. I was nearly struck dumb," she said.

Days later, Roy said, an agent from child protective services showed up to her home and questioned her kids, who are 6, 8 and 12.

Roy said the agent spoke to the children alone, one-by-one, and quizzed them about drugs, alcohol, pornography and how often they bathed.

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