Children Removed From Home

Coeur d’Alene police removed three children from their parents Saturday after finding a 5-year-old girl wandering in a fabric store.

Employees at Joanne’s Fabric store on Fourth Street found the girl and called police shortly after noon, according to a Coeur d’Alene Police report.

As officers tried to find the girl’s home, she repeatedly asked them not to take her there, according to the report.

“I don’t want to go home because my daddy is using drugs,” she told officers. She said her father smoked drugs and put a needle in his arm, according to the report.

When police arrived, they found the house on Seventh Street in disarray. The girl and her two siblings were dirty and had no shoes. The children could not remember the last time they had a bath, according to the report.

The girl, her 7-year-old brother and her 9-year-old sister were all placed in protective custody.

Police are still investigating the incident and charges have not been filed against the parents, whose names were not released.

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