It was a kindergarten class piece of art that Jessie Sansone probably won\u2019t want to hang on the refrigerator anytime soon.<\/p>\n
After Jesse Sansone\u2019s 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun, cops handcuffed the clueless father and dragged him off to jail. It was there that the dad was stripped of his clothes and searched by the authorities. Sansone was never charged with a crime.<\/p>\n
Sansone wasn\u2019t expecting to be greeted by police when he went to pick up his three children from school last week. Faculty there had become concerned, however, after the man\u2019s 4-year-old daughter drew an image last Wednesday that they thought warranted investigation. It was a picture of a man holding a gun, and when teachers asked the girl to explain it, she said it was a depiction of her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe uses it to shoot bad guys and monsters,\u201d teachers say the girl explained.<\/p>\n
The father says he doesn\u2019t own a gun. Nor does he kill monsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I\u2019m locked up,\u201d Sansone, 26, tells The Record out of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
After seeing the image in question, the school\u2019s staff became shocked as well. So much so, in fact, that they rang up child welfare officials and local law enforcement and arranged for them to meet the girl\u2019s father at the end of the school day. By that evening, Sansone had been handcuffed, whisked away to jail and forced to remove his clothes so he could be subjected to a strip search.<\/p>\n
Authorities took all three of Sansone\u2019s children and dragged them to Family and Children\u2019s Services to be interviewed. His wife, Stephanie Squires, tells The Record that authorities never explained themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had absolutely no idea what this was even about. I just kept telling them. \u2018You\u2019re making a mistake,\u2019 \u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Despite her pleas, the ordeal went on for hours. Sansone says he was scared and was told he would be charged with possession of a firearm. The problem was, he says, that he doesn\u2019t own a gun. After being held for hours, Sansone was eventually freed from jail and was asked to authorize a search of his home. Though he didn\u2019t have to comply, he says he did so anyway.<\/p>\n