Police grill father after online joke about giving chilli sauce to his baby
A FATHER was left in tears when a playful online anecdote about his baby son led to two policemen knocking at his front door.
Paul Dawson had eaten spicy chicken wings before absent-mindedly putting his knuckle into his fiveday-old son Ben’s mouth to comfort him – accidentally giving him a taste of chilli sauce.
After Ben pulled a face, Mr Dawson posted on Facebook: ‘Apparently five-dayold babies don’t like it when their dads put their fingers in their mouths after eating hot wings. Unintentionally... lol.’
But he was left dumbfounded two days later when police announced they were urgently investigating Ben’s welfare.
The 39-year-old barber said: ‘I opened the door and asked what was up. They replied: “You don’t know then?” and I said I didn’t have a clue. That’s when they told me that I had apparently been feeding my son hot sauce. I just said: “Are you taking the p***, mate?”.’
Mr Dawson, from Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, had visited restaurant chain TGI Fridays on January 6 with his partner Laurencia Wood, 21, and Ben, who was born on New Year’s Day. Mr Dawson held Ben while Miss Wood ate her food – and gave his newborn son his first taste of spicy food.
He was reduced to tears when policemen were at his door last Tuesday. The officers apologised for the overreaction after seeing his Facebook post – which they admitted they had not even read.
However, the father-of-three is furious they were sent out in the first place, saying: ‘If someone is burgled they don’t turn up as promptly as that.’ But he added that the officers were ‘very reasonable’ when he showed them the post.
Mr Dawson, who has two children from a previous marriage, added: ‘Maybe in future Benjamin might grow up to like hot food, but right now all he wants is milk. We’ll wait six months or so before we try him on vindaloos!’
A Cleveland Police spokesman said the two officers responded to a call and were ‘satisfied’ the baby was ‘safe and well’.