Law enforcement officials in Florida arrested a Sarasota couple that was found passed out in their car from an apparent high dosage of drugs - even as they had two babies in the backseat.
William Ballard, 36, and Delaney Crissinger, 32, drove their SUV into a Texaco gas station on Fruitville Road before dawn on Thursday morning, according to Fox 13, the Daily Mail reported.
At approximately 8am, customers who drove into the gas station noticed the couple passed out in the front seats.
In the back of the car, there were two toddlers - a 5-month-old and a 1-year-old.
A number of bystanders blockaded the SUV with their cars just in case the couple woke up and tried to drive away.Witnesses also reported seeing a significant amount of drugs. They then called 911.
When police arrived, the couple was still asleep in the car.
A subsequent search turned up methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, drug paraphernalia, and a loaded syringe on the floor next to a container of baby formula.
"We don't really see what addiction is about until we see something like that and that what saddens me most about it," said Eric Roundtree, who works at a restaurant next door.
"You're an adult, you can do what you want to do but don't bring your kids involved. And those two little innocent kids didn't have nothing to do with this but now they're shaken up.
"It's a sad situation all around,' said Lt. Joe Giasone.
"You've got people that are committing crimes and using drugs, doing those things, then you have them bringing their kids along with them creating other victims."
"Anyone that would leave that would leave kids in the back of the car when they have the amount of drugs that were in this car, it's sad for the kids."
The Sarasota couple are the latest to have been caught in the company of their children after consuming large amounts of drugs.
In December, a couple who drove three hours from their home in Vermont to Massachusetts to buy heroin were found passed out in a car with their one-year-old son and nine-month-old baby boy inside.
Jacob Davis, 27, and his fiancee, 32-year-old Tamara Bruce, were charged with reckless child endangerment after they were arrested in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Davis had his seat belt strapped around his arm like a tourniquet and was leaning into the steering wheel, with the vehicle's engine still running. Bruce was slumped in the front passenger seat with the couple's 23-month-old son in her lap. Their 9-month-old son was sleeping in his car seat in the back.
In September, Lawrence, Massachusetts - the same city where Bruce and Davis were arrested on Friday - was in the news after CCTV footage emerged showing Mandy McGowan lying unconscious from a suspected drug overdose in the middle of a local Family Dollar store, with her 2-year-old daughter tugging on her arm.
In October, Erika Hurt was pictured by police as they found her shortly after 2pm in Hope, Indiana, still clutching a syringe in her floppy left hand.
The 25-year-old's 10-month-old son was crying in the backseat.
They were parked outside a Dollar General Store.
A few days before that, an Ohio couple was found passed out in their car after allegedly injecting heroin Taylor Swartzlander, 24, and Haley Kirkendall, 22, were filmed by a bystander as they sat slumped over in the two front seats of their car on October 17.
Alyssa Bazala, a 25-year-old mother, was found passed out in her car with her baby after an overdose at the start of the month in Pennsylvania.
In September, 50-year-old Rhonda Pasek and 47-year-old James Acord were photographed after they passed out in their car as their four-year-old boy sat in the backseat.
The image of the overdosed couple was disseminated by police in East Liverpool, Ohio.
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