Franklin police found a Main Street home in disarray after they found a 7-year-old boy wandering a high traffic area of downtown Franklin. The boy told officers he was trying to sell his stuffed animal for food because he hadn’t eaten for several days. CONTRIBUTED 
 
 Franklin police found a Main Street home in disarray after they found a 7-year-old boy wandering a high traffic area of downtown Franklin. The boy told officers he was trying to sell his stuffed animal for food because he hadn’t eaten for several days. CONTRIBUTED 
 
 By Ed Richter 
 
 Staff Writer 
 
 “Serve and protect” took on a new meaning recently in Franklin. 
 
 Officer Steve Dunham found a 7-year-old boy Sunday afternoon in front of a CVS store at Second and Main streets trying to sell his stuffed animal. Police had responded to the scene after dispatchers were contacted by a resident. The boy told Dunham he hadn’t eaten in several days. 
 
 So the police officer took the boy across the street to a Subway restaurant, where he bought him something to eat before taking him to the police station. 
 
 Two other officers, Amanda Myers and Kyle O’Neal, went to the child’s home on Main Street, where they reported finding the boy’s two siblings living in a home full of garbage, cat urine and liquor bottles. 
 
 In her initial report, Myers wrote that the parents created “a substantial risk of health and safety by neglecting the cleanliness in the residence, having a large amount of bugs and spoiled food throughout the residence, not having properly prepared and packaged food for the minor children to eat, and allowing a 7-year-old child to wander from the residence without their permission or knowledge, in an attempt to locate food.” 
 
 According to the police report, Tammy and Michael Bethel told police they had a 7-year-old son and did not realize he was not in the house. 
 
 Warren County Children Services did an emergency removal of all five of the Bethel’s children and placed them with relatives. Judge Rupert Ruppert ordered that the parents were not to have any contact with their children. 
 
 Tammy and Michael Bethel are charged with five counts each of child endangering, all first-degree misdemeanors. 
 
 Both parents were arraigned Tuesday in Franklin Municipal Court and have pre-trial hearings set for Sept. 16. 
 
 “Officers see this nationwide everyday and they do go above and beyond to feed homeless, feed children … they treat people like their own family,” said Police Chief Russell Whitman. “You can look at your local police departments wherever you’re at and you can find stories like this.” 
 
 There have been 11 child neglect reports filed in 2016 with three that warranted investigation in Franklin, according to Whitman. The other eight were unfounded, he said. ||||| After finding a young boy all alone trying to sell his teddy bear for food, Franklin police charged the child’s parents with child endangerment. 
 
 
 
 Officer Steve Dunham found the child in a busy area and went beyond the requirements of his badge to help. 
 
 
 
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 Officials said they received a call on Sunday afternoon that a young boy was wandering in downtown Franklin alone. 
 
 
 
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 Police said the 7-year-old was peddling his toy in front of a drug store to get money for food. 
 
 
 
 “It broke my heart,” Dunham said. “He told me he was trying to sell his stuffed animal to get money for food because he hadn't eaten in several days.” 
 
 
 
 Dunham took the child to a nearby Subway to get something to eat, then brought him back to the Franklin Police Department. 
 
 
 
 “(We) said a little prayer and ate dinner together,” Dunham said. 
 
 
 
 Police Chief Russ Whitman said Dunham gave the boy comfort and safety that he didn't have at home. 
 
 
 
 After further investigation, police said the child and his four brothers lived in squalor. Investigators described the home on Main Street as full of garbage, cat urine and liquor bottles. 
 
 
 
 Investigators charged the parents, Tammy and Michael Bethel, with 10 counts of child endangering. 
 
 
 
 “(Police) treated them like their own kids, and that's exactly what law enforcement does in situations like this. How would we want someone to treat our kids?” Whitman said. “Hopefully, these officers’ actions change these kids’ lives and maybe change the lives of the parents to become better parents.” 
 
 
 
 Dunham said he doesn't look at it as anything but just doing his job, and he made a new friend in the process. 
 
 
 
 “I came back to check on him and he was hiding. He jumped out to scare me when I came back in the building; he got me real good,” Dunham said. “(We) would like to go home at the end of the day feeling like (we’ve) done something positive and, you know, had some kind of positive impact." 
 
 
 
 The victim’s advocate sent the Franklin Police Department a thank-you note, commending them for going the extra mile to give a vulnerable child some comfort and safety. 
 
 
 
 Police said the 7-year-old boy and his brothers, ages 11, 12, 15 and 17, have been removed from the home and are now staying with family members. 
 
 
 
 The parents have been ordered to have no contact with them. 
 

– A hungry 7-year-old boy trying to hawk his teddy bear to buy food ran into the right cop: Officer Steve Dunham tells WLWT "it broke my heart" to see the child trying to sell his toy last week outside a drugstore in Franklin, Ohio. The boy told Dunham it had been several days since he'd eaten, and so the cop took him out for a bite before heading to the station, the Journal-News reports. The boy's parents later told police they had no idea their son wasn't at home. Police say the boy and his four brothers lived in squalor in a home that reeked of urine and was littered with garbage, liquor bottles, and "a large amount of bugs and spoiled food." Parents Tammy and Michael Bethel were charged with 10 counts of child endangerment. Besides the 7-year-old, their four other boys, ages 11 to 17, were removed from the house and are now staying with family members. Police Chief Russ Whitman praises Dunham's actions and says it's what police are supposed to do. "How would we want someone to treat our kids?" he tells WLWT. "Hopefully these officers' actions change these kids' lives and maybe change the lives of the parents to become better parents." For his part, Dunham says he was only doing his job: "I would like to go home at the end of the day feeling like I'd done something positive." (Another cop warmed hearts when she was spotted sharing a meal with a homeless guy.)