Tiffany Tapper and Matthew Anderson were on their way to the home of Tapper’s parent Thursday night in South Florida with their two toddlers in the backseat when the couple passed out from drugs, police said.
A passerby spotted Tapper, who was at the wheel, and Anderson unconscious in the car in Boynton Beach.
Anderson, 27, told police he passed out from taking suboxone, a drug he’s using to help wean himself off heroin and that Tapper, 25, also took the drug.
But police said when they searched the car — finding cockroaches and the children’s diapers soiled — they found a bag of white powder they identified as heroin and fentanyl, a much more potent and deadly drug, in Anderson’s wallet.
The two survived, and authorities placed the children with a grandparent, according to a police report.
Both face charges of child neglect. Tapper also faces a DUI charge, and Anderson drug possession charges.
The state Department of Children and Families is investigating the incident, a spokeswoman said.
The overdose problem is becoming a nationwide problem, and hearing about them has become a daily occurrence. And while not as common, authorities in the state and nation are reporting more adults found overdosed in cars with their children inside.
In January, a couple in Florida's Sarasota County were found unconscious in their car at a gas station with their two children in the backseat. And in September, police in Ohio released a photo that went viral of a similar call. The photo showed two adults in the driver and passenger seats with a young boy in the back seat with his face blurred out.
Also in Ohio, a girl had to call 911 from the backseat of an SUV last Saturday in Cincinnati after her parents overdosed on heroin.
