Child tells teacher heroin powder turns him into Spider-Man

The boy told his teacher that tasting the powder gave him superpowers. Photo / 123RF

A father has been arrested and his son taken into care after a 5-year-old boy showed his teacher a bag of heroin and told them that when he tastes the powder he becomes Spider-Man.

The boy arrived at the H.B. Lawrence Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, with a plastic bag decorated with Spider-Man and put it in his mouth, telling a teacher eating the powder turns him into the superhero.

Authorities say the boy was taken to a hospital but was unharmed.

Police contacted the boy's mother, who gave them permission to search her apartment.

During that search police found the boy's father, Benny Garcia, 29, asleep in bed with bags of heroin "strewn beneath him" reported the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Holyoke Police Lieutenant James Albert said that as Garcia was being arrested, other bags fell from his person.

Police found more than 200 bags of heroin and cocaine at the home, documents show.

Officers also reportedly found four walkie-talkies and chargers in the home's kitchen pantry.

Benny Garcia, 29, has been arrested on serious charges. Photo / Holyoke Police Department

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Green told Holyoke District Court: "The officers located the same sort of baggie [of] heroin stamped 'Spider-Man' that the child brought to school in a dresser drawer of the defendant's bedroom."

Albert told the Gazette said the bag was sealed, and that police only knew that the boy put the bag in his mouth, as he may have not ingested it. According to Albert, the Department of Children and Families removed the boy and another infant from the family.

"He loves Spider-Man," Albert said of the boy. "Our officers were quite taken by it all. You don't often deal with this."

Garcia is being held without bail on charges of drug possession and reckless endangerment of a child.

-Additional reporting, AP