{"id":317104,"date":"2026-04-11T19:24:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=317104"},"modified":"2026-04-11T19:24:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:54:55","slug":"boy-9-can-not-walk-after-being-locked-in-dads-van-for-nearly-500-days-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/boy-9-can-not-walk-after-being-locked-in-dads-van-for-nearly-500-days-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy, 9, can not walk after being locked in dad’s van for nearly 500 days | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The suspects\u2019 terrace at a residential constructing where a boy was discovered naked and malnourished on a pile of rubbish in a van in Hagenbach, eastern France (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A nine-year-old boy has been rescued after being locked inside his dad\u2019s van for nearly 18 months.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The teen is now in a hospital in eastern France after being found \u2018lying in a foetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement\u2019.<\/p>\n

He had been confined to a sitting position contained in the vehicle for thus long he can not walk, Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz added in a press release.<\/p>\n

Police were alerted by a neighbour who heard the \u2018sounds of a baby\u2019 coming from the van within the village of Hagenbach near the borders of Switzerland and Germany on Monday.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s father, who has been detained, allegedly told investigators he put his son within the van in November 2024 \u2018to guard him\u2019 because his partner desired to send him to a psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n

However the prosecutor said there have been no medical records of the teen having any psychiatric problems, while school records show he had good grades.<\/p>\n

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Mr Heitz said the boy told investigators he had \u2018big difficulties\u2019 along with his father\u2019s partner and thought he \u2018had no selection\u2019 but to lock him up.<\/p>\n

He said he hadn\u2019t showered since 2024.<\/p>\n

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Gendarmes discovered the kid after being alerted by an area resident who had heard \u2018the sounds of a baby\u2019 coming from a van (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The daddy was handed preliminary kidnapping and other charges and kept in custody.<\/p>\n

His partner denied knowledge that the boy was within the van, in line with the prosecutor.<\/p>\n

She was handed preliminary charges, including for failure to assist a minor at risk, and released under judicial supervision.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s 12-year-old sister and the 10-year-old daughter of his father\u2019s partner were put within the care of social services.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s office is investigating whether anyone else knew what was happening to the kid.<\/p>\n

Family and friends told investigators they thought the boy was in a psychiatric institution.<\/p>\n

His teachers were told he had transferred to a special school, in line with the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Authorities didn’t release the names of the victim or relations.<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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The suspects\u2019 terrace at a residential constructing where a boy was discovered naked and malnourished on a pile of rubbish in a van in Hagenbach, eastern France (Picture: AFP via Getty Images) A nine-year-old boy has been rescued after being locked inside his dad\u2019s van for nearly 18 months. The teen is now in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[1209,13251,3354,8200,5600,395,3826,9203,813],"class_list":["post-317104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-boy","tag-dads","tag-days","tag-locked","tag-longer","tag-news","tag-van","tag-walk","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317107,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317104\/revisions\/317107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}