Mom Tries to Scare Kid Into Behaving, Gets Busted

A Staten Island couple looking to "scare straight" their unruly 6-year-old at a local police station had the tables turned when the police busted the pair for child endangerment. Annette Gerhardt took her daughter to the station house, telling her that was where bad children go, cops said. But when the mom asked the police to play along, they arrested both parents. "She told me that I was an unfit mother," the mom told the New York Daily News. "I sat there with tears in my eyes."

But according to prosecutors, Gerhardt was out of control, telling police: "I can't take her anymore. She is uncontrollable. I'm going to leave her here. If you don't take her, I will take her to the firehouse." Police "obviously had questions about their ability to supervise," said the commissioner. "It's an experience you just wished in that moment that you didn't do it—that you could just take it all back," said Gerhardt. (More Staten Island stories.)