Crazy father leaves 3-year-old son home alone while talking to cooked chickens (Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia)

I'm not big on mental health labels, but you don't need a PhD in psychology to figure out that UNNAMED DAD is a few cards short of a full deck. Talking to the cooked chickens at the supermarket? Mmm, okay. Did they say anything back? Personally, I prefer talking to uncooked chickens, but hey--to each his own.

Meanwhile, while Dad is engaging in conversations with poultry, he's left his 3-year-old son home alone. It seems the supermarket outing had something to do with "searching" for his 3-year-old son, whom Dad was convinced he had "lost." The police are unable to determine where this guy even lives, he's so disoriented and incoherent.

Eventually, the police track down Dad's "ex-partner" (the 3-year-old's mother?), and she is able to tell them the correct address. The police found the boy riding his tricyle, not far from Daddy's caravan (trailer), where Daddy had left on two hot plates.

I sincerely doubt this was Dad's first experience with serious drugs and/or manic, delusional behavior. So who allowed him to "care" for this 3-year-old child? Did he have custody? Visitation? Oh wait, this is Australia. If you're a father and you have a pulse, you automatically get custodial/visitation rights. Gotcha.

http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2010/06/26/dad-says-frasert-hervey-bay-court-crime/

Hervey Bay dad says son was 'lost'
Kristy Martin 26th June 2010

A HERVEY Bay dad was allegedly so out of it that he left his three-year-old son home alone and then forgot where the boy was and ran frantically up and down the Scarness foreshore searching for him.

The 37-year-old father, who cannot be named, will stand trial in the Hervey Bay District Court charged with leaving a child under 12 unattended and failing to provide sufficient supervision and care.

The man was allegedly in such a disoriented state that he couldn't even provide his personal details or his own address to police on the morning of April 2.

He'd been seen walking along the Scarness foreshore about 6.35am talking to himself and an hour later entered the Foodworks supermarket and tried to have a conversation with the cooked chickens.

CCTV footage from the shop allegedly showed the man moving a display stand over to the chickens as if he was trying to demonstrate something to them.

The man, who appeared in the Hervey Bay Magistrates Court this week, was found walking along the Esplanade in a distressed state and telling people he'd lost his son.

He also called police to tell them he'd lost the boy.

But when police arrived at the scene, the confused father could not explain how he had lost the boy and could not provide a description of the child.

He allegedly changed his story a number of times and at one stage even told the officers that he'd lost two children, not one.

Police said the man appeared under the influence of drugs or alcohol and when they asked him to take them to his home, he directed them to a complete stranger's house instead.

The officers eventually enlisted the help of the man's ex-partner and she directed them to the correct address.

The three-year-old child was found riding a tricycle around at the caravan park where his father lives.

A witness said the boy had been roaming around asking for his “Daddy”.

Police entered the man's caravan, which was empty, and allegedly found two hot plates burning at an extremely hot temperature within arm's reach of the young boy.

His father's bed had not been slept in and another witness told police the man had not been seen with the child since midnight the previous night.

When the man was interviewed, he allegedly told police he had been with the child earlier, but the boy had run off while they were at the beach.

The man, who did not enter any plea, will face the District Court at a date to be set.