Boy, 7, taken into foster care over alcopop

A seven-year-old boy was taken into foster care in the US - after his dad accidentally bought him an alcopop at a baseball game.

Police and child protection workers said Christopher Ratte should have known that Mike's Hard Lemonade contained alcohol.

But Mr Ratte, 47, a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan, insists he had no idea. "I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it," Ratte insisted. "And it's certainly not what I expected when I ordered a lemonade for my seven-year-old." A security guard at Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park stadium noticed the bottle in young Leo's hand, confiscated it and contacted the police.



An hour later, Mr Ratte was being interviewed by a Detroit police officer at Children's Hospital, where a physician at Comerica Park had dispatched Leo - by ambulance - after a cursory exam.

A police officer estimated Leo had drunk about 12 ounces of the drink, which is 5% alcohol. But a blood test 90 minutes later detected no trace of alcohol.

But it was another two days before Mr Ratte's wife, architecture professor Claire Zimmerman, was allowed to take their son home, and nearly a week before Mr Ratte was allowed to move back into his own house. Mr Ratte has filed a formal complaint with the CPS ombudsman's office.

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