A 9-year-old found locked in a utility van since 2024, malnourished and unable to walk

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Updated 5:38 AM CDT, April 11, 2026
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PARIS (AP) — A 9-year-old boy was rescued this week after living locked in his father’s utility van in eastern France since 2024, according to the local prosecutor. The child has been hospitalized, and his father detained.

Police were alerted by a neighbor to “sounds of a child’’ coming from a van on Monday in the village of Hagenbach near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, according to a statement from Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz provided Saturday.

After forcing the van open, they found a child “lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement,″ the statement said. The child was clearly malnourished and could no longer walk, because he had been in a seated position for so long, it said.

The boy’s father told investigators that he put the child in the truck in November 2024 ″to protect him,″ because his partner wanted to send the boy to a psychiatric hospital, the prosecutor said. The boy was 7 at the time.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/france-boy-trapped-van-father-charged-hagenbach-0888b35ffb0f1f4b298270905e9e0a2d

[malaise]

1. He and the partner should be sent to a psychiatric hospital

on their way to prison. Monsters live among us.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

3. On their way under the prison! 🤬

[malaise]

4. Fine by me

[cab67]

2. The boy may not have needed to be in a psychiatric institution two years ago.

But there's a good chance he'll need to spend some time in one now. Or at least undergoing intense therapy.

And he deserves a long and successful life following this ordeal. Hopefully, he'll get the help he needs to achieve that.

[Boomerproud]

5. The three females in the house didn't know this was going on?

I read the article. Unbelievable.