Man allegedly ran clothes dryer with kids inside

updated 2:19 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2006

HUTCHINSON, Kan. - Two children have been removed from their home after a man reportedly ran a clothes dryer with the toddlers inside.

A 3-year-old boy was treated for second-degree burns, but a 2-year-old girl was not injured after the Nov. 28 incident, the Reno County district attorney's office said.

Aron J. Pritchard, 27, was charged Tuesday with one felony count of child abuse and another of aggravated endangering a child. Bond was set at $750,000.

Police investigators alleged the man stuffed the children — the son and daughter of his girlfriend — into the dryer and turned it on, reportedly after the boy wet his pants. The boy was not treated for his injuries until he was taken into protective custody on Dec. 6, the district attorney's office said in a news release.

In a news release Wednesday, Reno County Prosecutor Keith Schroeder said no further information would be immediately released in the case. But he told The Hutchinson News on Tuesday that he did not know how long the children were in the dryer.

Pritchard and a cousin were arrested in late November when police found the two men on top of a grain elevator in Hutchinson, with backpacks full of beer and alcohol.

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