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4-year-old boy gives up mom to police

When Largo police came to arrest a woman, her 4-year-old piped up and told them she was in his closet.

By SHANNON TAN
Published October 25, 2005

LARGO - If they held a police academy for children, this 4-year-old would be at the top of his class.

Largo police went to the Clearwater home of a suspect in a prescription fraud case Saturday, but Barbara King's boyfriend told police she wasn't in.

According to the police, however, the little boy quickly contradicted him. In a burst of truthfulness, he piped up: "Mommy's in the closet, Mommy's in the closet."

The officers looked at each other in surprise.

Then the boy dropped another clue: "No, my closet!"

The secret out, the boyfriend merely shook his head - and admitted that King was upstairs.

Police searched the boy's room. Despite the child's assertions, Mommy wasn't there.

But as they walked into King's bedroom, she ducked out from behind the clothes in her closet.

"I wasn't hiding," she said. "I was just in there."

King, 35, told police her doctor had thrown away several prescriptions for oxycodone after making mistakes on them. She pulled the prescriptions out of the garbage and took them to a CVS pharmacy in Largo, where a friend tried to pick them up. The friend, Vassilia Edwards, 30, of Holiday, was arrested Friday on charges including prescription fraud and trafficking of a controlled substance. King was booked in Pinellas County Jail on one count of forgery and one count of prescription fraud. She was released Saturday after posting $20,000 bail.

"She wouldn't admit she was hiding upstairs, but admitted to dropping" off the prescriptions, said Officer Darren Cockeram.

[Last modified October 25, 2005, 19:52:02]