S.C. girl forced to live in woods, punished for eating a Pop-Tart, police say

The parents of a South Carolina girl are facing charges after being accused of ordering their 14-year-old daughter to survive in the woods for a week as punishment for eating a Pop-Tart without permission, police said.

James Driggers, 33, and his wife Crystal Driggers, 36, told their daughter that she had to live for a week in a tent about a quarter-mile from their Sumter County home as retribution for her unsanctioned snacking, investigators said, NBC reported.

Authorities visited the parents last Thursday after receiving a tip from the girl’s grandmother and arrested them the following day upon learning that the teen had been sent back into the woods.

Sheriff’s deputies told reporters that the Driggers gave their daughter only a roll of toilet paper, a flashlight, a whistle and a watch, and they had expected her to fend for herself in a wooded area in rural South Carolina that’s home to wild pigs. The teen was told she could meet “someone” at a fence near her residence once a day for food, said police, and was given an opened can of Spaghetti-Os by her brother during what turned out to be only a 2-day-long ordeal.

While investigating the matter, authorities determined that the girl been barred from being inside the Driggers’ home between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the previous month.

“She couldn’t return for any reason,” Sheriff’s Department spokesman Braden Bunch told NBC News. “Not to get a drink, not to use the bathroom, nothing.”

Both parents have been charged with a single count of unlawful neglect, but more counts could be announced soon, authorities said. The 14-year-old has since been transferred to the South Carolina Department of Social Services, while her five siblings have been placed in the custody of their grandmother.

Mr. Bunch said the parents “confirmed to us exactly what they were planning” on doing, the Daily Beast reported. “They were upset because the child ate a Pop-Tart,” he said.