| Photo: The Trentonian |
It was a classic good news/bad news scenario. Police in Maine said they found a three-year-old autistic boy who wandered away from his home — along with 147 marijuana plants being cultivated by his father.
The boy was reported missing by his father, 41-year-old Jonathan Lehr, at about 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, reports News 13.
The three-year-old, Benjamin Lehr, was found unhurt about two hours later when a pilot with the Maine Warden Service spotted him in some tall grass and woods not far from his home in Vienna, Maine. He was dehydrated and disoriented, but otherwise OK.
“The Kennebec County Sheriff’s office says searchers also discovered 147 marijuana plants inside the home,” The Associated Press tells us.
Which raises several interesting and pertinent questions.
Like, for instance, if the kid was reported missing by his dad, why were searchers looking inside his home?
That one could perhaps be explained by searchers wanting to cover and re-cover all the bases, but the next question is even harder to answer: Why on Earth would the father allow searchers inside his home if he had 147 pot plants growing in there?
In any event, Jonathan Lehr faces charges of marijuana possession and endangering the welfare of a child.
Seized were the 147 plants, a quarter-pound of processed cannabis and growing equipment, reports Candice Lucey at HULIQ.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is also investigating.