Real, Strange News

For professors they don't seem very bright. It says right on the label that it contains alc. Maybe they wanted their kid to get a good night sleep. Mike's Hard Lemonade... when Nyquil isn't enough.

Something doesn't add up. Was the dad drunk at the time? Even an ig prof knows what hard cider is so how he not no what hard lemonade would be? State did the right thing here given the info they had.

Mike's contains alcohol? You could have fooled me. I thought it was all corn syrup and artificial flavor.

People like this do not deserve to have children. They would give them bleach instead of water cause they dont know any better.

Mike's Hard Lemonade bottling can look innocuous enough to a non-drinker and mistakes happen. Instead of wasting everyone's time and subjecting the kid to the trauma of CPS, the security guard should have used some judgement and approached the father at the game before calling the cops. Ridiculous.

Wonderful, nice use of public funds

Lovely find. Just what America needs, more idiotic rules. Last days of the empire draw near, beware the laughter that comes wrought with consequence

Drink up kid, its good for you.

Is this story for real? Absurd on both ends, the idiot professor, as well as the hard-ass security guard.

hands down a system retarded enough to make children worse off. Security guard needs to pull his head out of anus and use some commonsense.

I'm not surprised. Sunlight dishwashing liquid had to put a warning on the bottle so people didn't drink the soap. They got sued about it 1st though. They figured nobody was THAT stupid, and they were wrong.

I've had a few professors like this couple. Get them out of their class environment and area of expertise and it was scary how helpless they were.

It won't be long until the thought police use this against the manufacture in their claims that the manufacture is targeting kids with this product.

While I was typing this I had another scary thought: These people could actually LEARN something from watching TV.

I need to find my happy place now ...

The sign at the ballpark listing drink prices reads Mike's Lemonade, there is no mention that it's actually hard lemonade. He ordered a lemonade for his son, why would anyone bother to read the label at all ballpark? This story would be funny if it didn't have such terrible consequences.

I like lemonade, and as luck might have it, I was in line getting a pizza at the Atlanta airport returning home from business the first time I was "introduced" to Mikes Hard Lemonade. Until I had the first swig, I had no idea it was an alcoholic beverage. I can see how someone making a last minute decision in line at a ball game might grab one of these. It is good stuff I might add.

"the security guard should have used some judgement and approached the father at the game before calling the cops. Ridiculous"

Where has common sense gone? He could have simply asked; "do you know what your kid is drinking?"

Wait a minute. So it's impossible that the professor was dumb enough not to know that Mike's Lemonade contains alcohol but it's totally possible that he's dumb enough then to let his child walk around a highly-populated public place openly drinking alcohol? Doesn't make sense. His story is highly plausible. More importantly,the government should not be taking children away from their parents unless there is solid evidence that their lives are in danger by remaining in the home. Furthermore, the CPS should be brought up on charges for promising the family that the child could be released to an aunt after she secured a hotel room in the area and then instead sending the child off to an undisclosed foster home while the aunt was getting the room. This is truly an outrage.

Ballocks to that, the parents should have known better. They acted irresponsibly and with potentially malice. Maybe they wanted their kid to get a little less hyper and the ritalin wasn't working. I've seen worse. You never can tell these days with parents even if they have title and education.

Oh puleeeeeze! He obviously was unaware. What kind of parent intentionally gives their kid booze and then pretends it wasn't booze and then fights their arse off to get em back?

I am so sorry for this family. Do you think the parents would really allow their son to drink alcohol in the public? Of course not!!!!!! I have never heard of the drink before. Personally, I think the person selling the drink to the father and son could have informed them!!! What a sad world we live in.

I think this indicates a far wider issue. Why do people no longer have the right to teach their children to drink in this country?

Let's think about that for a bit...I think that after a certain point, parents should educate their children about drinking, rather than letting them learn the "art" of it (or more likely, the abuse of it) from their peers. This is something I strongly believe, that if parents took the time to teach their children how to drink responsibility (because isn't it as much a part of life as all the other things that parents are supposed to teaching?) then wouldn't things be better? Perhaps we'd have far less alcohol abuse...

And think about the social impact. Maybe kids would WANT to spend time with their parents in that case? If say, an 18 year old hung out with his dad watching the game, both having a beer, how could that really be bad?

It's things like that this that make me bemoan the puritanical nature of our national outlook at times.

@ yeah right: what you suggest would be disasterous. Everyone would get loaded with there kids and we have a bunch of drunks with guns shooting at each other. America can't handle the responsibility of non-paternalistic living. We need a nanny state in order to keep us blissful. Get w/the program buddy.

I was just looking at the pictures of the product online. The label doesn't show the alcoholic content in a large font. I think someone who is not a drinker might easily be confused by it. I don't read small print on labels at ballgames either.

I can see how that can easily happen. In fact I Have seen how easily that can happen. Here is a True and Funny story about it. Several years ago we went to a Super Bowl party and we brought a couple of six packs of beer & a couple of six packs of Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Well right before the game started I saw our hostess pop open one and I said those are pretty good, and they've got a descent kick to them too. "a kick?" she asked. I said yea, I believe they have a little more alcohol content than you're average Wine Cooler. "These are Wine Coolers?!?" she gasped! Her jaw dropped and her eyes got as big as baseballs. The next thing you saw was a red flash through out the house (she was wearing a red skirt) Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh and about 3 ½ seconds latter she was back with a half dozen Sippy Cups in her arms. Ha ha She thought the beer was for the adults and the lemonade was for the kids. (she had also never heard of Mike's Hard Lemonade before).
They had just gotten them so there wasn't much drank from any of the cups so, the kids were fine, none of them went to the hospital, and no one got their kids taken away. Which is what should have happened in this case IMO.
I think they should definitely have a clearer label on them "This Aint You're momma's Lemonade". lol

Isn't the larger issue here that we allow beverage companies to market products like this and those alco-pops to teenagers. This Dad obviously made a mistake but it happened because our government is letting wealthy booze merchants push their poison in a form that makes it look "fun" and "innocent."

Nevermind that ever alcoholic picks up his first drink before he is old enough to know any better. And nevermind that more teens are killed from drunk driving than any other cause put together. All they care about is the bottom line.

And then they put on those PSA marketing acts saying that they don't want underage business. What a load of crap. Today's teen alcoholic is tomorrow's number 1 customer. They know it, and our government pretends they care as they gladhand lobbyists and fat their pockets.

Is there no shame? If Budweiser came out with a malted beverage that was flavored and packaged like baby formula would we allow them to sell that? Isn't the government supposed to protect us from dangerous products? I guess not, when there is a profit to be had!

I believe the larger issue is that they took the boy without any due process. period. Just like the families in Texas. You may not agree with what they believe or practice but what this is doing is setting everyone else up for similar situations. If the state doesn't like you or the way you act they will take you kids BEFORE you can even dispute your accusor.

I'm sure that Mike's Hard Lemonade was safer for the kid than coca cola! A little alcohol ain'g gonna hurt a kid that age. I think this is an unfortunate example of little people with a little power using every last bit they can just because they can.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits. The application of law--when that application is not governed by common sense--is the sort of thinking that gets people killed in the name of 'enforcement'. Are the child welfare people trying to protect their collective job security? In a word, they are 'idiots'.

Looking at it from a UK perspective, we refer to these as "alco-pops." Pop being the UK term for fizzy soft, non-alcoholic drinks.

In the UK we are haivng severe problems with what is termed "Binge Drinking" by young people, often under 18, the current legal drinking age over here, and alco-pops are one of the root causes as they are marketed to appeal so strongly to young people.

Looking at the labels for the drinks shown at the top of this page, there is little to show anyone unfamiliar with them that they are, in fact, alcoholic, particularly at a distance of possibly 3 or 4 yards on a stall at a busy sports venue.

This is a problem over here too. As an example, my work is safety critical, hence, if I am away from home, staying in a hotel and it is less than 12h before I book on, I will have soft drinks with my evening meal.

Several times I have ordered an alco-pop thinking I was getting a soft drink only to be told by the bar staff that it was alcoholic!

Witness, MADD Dad and others are perfectly correct on this.

So is Yeah Right about responsible parents in The US not being allowed to introduce their children to the use of alcohol in a controlled fashion. I do exactly this with my children. From 14yo my two eldest, now 16 and nearly 19, have been allowed occasional small glasses of ale.

From 10 or so, they have all been allowed one or two small (VERY small) glasses of wine with a meal. Drink for them is not a big deal and they have seen enough drunken people making total fools of themselves to realise that abusing it is not a good idea!

Yea Bob! Way to get your kids drunk. You should be locked up. Oh right, you live in England... football hooligans gotta start somewhere.

Another lovely tale of Michigan at her best. I have to throw my support behind the state in this circumstance. They can't be expected to differentiate between the parents who accidentally give the children alcohol and those who don't. There is an evaluation system that will sort that out, but their first priority must be the protection of the kids and that means taking them away from a potentially dangerous home.

As far as the comments about alcopops and the like, I agree that with MADD Dad that they shouldn't be allowed to be sold. There is enough temptation out there for teens, why should we give them even more? In response to Bob it is a question of culture. In America we do not believe in giving children wine, but in your country that is acceptable. This should be a choice of the state and not the parents.

There are a lot of scary people out there, and I'm talking about the one's who are quick to condemn the dad. What a ridiculous world we live in.

I'm in Australia, and as far as I know it isn't marketed here. For religious (and health) reasons I don't drink alcohol. As such I can only express my uninformed opinion.

Based on the name and what I see in the photo above, *I* would have thought it was Lemonade. It looks quite like one of the regular brands here of an "Old Style Lemonade".

If the price board at the game simply calls it Lemonade, that's what I'd have asked for as that's what I drink.

Another case of Zero Tolerance going overboard and another kid who may grow up with "issues" with government officials.