A 12-year-old Indiana kid was mistakenly put in a jail cell after cops mistook him for his 17-year-old brother who had been recently arrested for unspecified charges. Because, you know, telling the difference between a 12-year-old kid and a 17-year-old kid is difficult to manage.
Here's what happened: The kid, Jacob Magruder, accompanied his parents to the local police station after they heard that his brother had been arrested. Jacob waited in the lobby of the police station while his parents were dealing with the cops elsewhere. As he was sitting, a cop approached him and asked the secretary if Jacob was the boy he was supposed to take - and the woman said yes. According to Jacob, he didn't say anything because he had been "taught to respect his elders."
Jacob was patted down and searched, and then taken into a jail cell. A few minutes later, when the mistake was discovered and he was released. "They said, 'I'm sorry, it was just a misunderstanding.' They said, 'You can give your brother a hug,' and all that. I gave him a hug and he started bawling and I started bawling," Jacob explained to a local news station. "He had his radio. He should have called up there to check because he should have known that a 17-year-old does not look like me."
According to a representative for the police station, an on-going internal investigation is being conducted.
But hey, maybe he should look at the bright side: This whole incident will probably up his street cred!
[via Huffington Post]
