Mindy McCready and her son were hiding in the closet when cops came to get him


Country singer Mindy McCready, 36, made headlines for something other than a DUI or a drunken fight last week when she kidnapped her five year-old son, Zander, from the care of his legal guardian, Mindy’s mother. Instead of returning the boy after a scheduled visit last week, Mindy fled from Florida to Tennessee and then Arkansas. A missing person’s report went out for Zander and a court order was issued for him to be returned to his grandmother last Thursday. Mindy claimed she didn’t do anything wrong because her son was her property. She said “I did not steal my child, as it would be impossible for me to kidnap what already belongs to me! There never was any missing persons report and never an Amber Alert.” There was definitely a missing person’s report but that didn’t seem to faze Mindy. Also, she claimed she couldn’t return Zander since she was either five or seven months pregnant with twins, depending on which outlet she was talking to. Well all that is over now because authorities found Mindy and Zander at her boyfriend’s home in Arkansas. When cops stormed the home, Mindy and the boy were hiding in a closet. Is anyone else getting Elian Gonzales flashbacks? Zander has been taken into custody and will be returned to his grandmother shortly.

Country music singer Mindy McCready was hiding in the closet with her son when authorities took the 5-year-old boy into custody in Arkansas, officials said early Saturday.

Authorities found Zander McCready and his mother in a home in Heber Springs, Arkansas, according to David Rahbany, the chief deputy U.S. Marshal in eastern Arkansas.

“The child appeared to be in good condition when we found him … he was in the closet with his mother,” Rahbany said.

Local sheriffs and marshals had placed the home — believed to belong to the singer’s boyfriend — under surveillance for hours before they found the boy late Friday, he said.

The boy is in the custody of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, who will make arrangements to take him to his legal guardian in Florida, his maternal grandmother.

Until recently, the boy has been living with Mindy McCready’s mother and stepfather, Gayle and Michael Inge, who have legal custody. The singer, who has fought a public battle against drug addiction, has visitation rights.

McCready took her son from her mother’s Florida home late last month and asked a court to restore custody to her out of concern over the boy’s safety.

A Florida judged signed an emergency “pickup order” Thursday authorizing law enforcement officers to get the boy.

McCready’s mother and stepfather said they are relieved.

“We feel sorrow for Zander because he’s traumatized, and for Mindy,” they said. “We just hope she does the right thing from here on out and that this is a wake-up call for her.”

McCready was not charged with a crime Friday, Rahbany said, adding it is unclear whether she faces any future charges.

[From CNN]

What an awful thing to do, and to put your child through. That kid is going to be upset and confused, and for the rest of his life he’ll remember being taken away by cops from his mom while she clung to him in a closet. Mindy doesn’t care though, because Zander is her property! He’s not a vulnerable little kid who needs love and guidance, he’s something she owns. It’s obvious why she doesn’t have custody of him. I hope authorities keep a close eye on those twins she claims to be having, but hopefully she’s lying about that too.

People has a new article chronicling Mindy’s problems through the years. She’s been a mess for a long time.

Most of these photos are from Facebook and I think that’s her current boyfriend. One photo below credit: WENN

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15 Responses to “Mindy McCready and her son were hiding in the closet when cops came to get him”

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  1. normades says:

    This story just makes me sad 🙁

  2. hillbilly in the corner says:

    Her mother was appointed guardian of her grandson for a reason .Mindy was so messed up on drugs she gave that child into her mothers care…Like a little girl giving away a doll , she now wants it back and wants it now….and instead of doing it the right way she just grabbed the boy and ran…by doing so she’s only made her case to have her son returned to her worse…which in turn proved she not ready to have him back….I feel sorry for the boy and for his grandmother..not only does she have the boy to worry about but also she is bound to be worried over her own child Mindy and thats a hard row to hoe..

  3. SolitaryAngel says:

    That poor little boy must be so scared! Children need stability and the comfort of routine; from personal experience, I can agree that he will remember this for the rest of his life. My mother, too, thought of us kids as HERS rather than as separate individuals with thoughts, feelings, and needs beyond her insistence on instant gratification. Pulled between my mother (who did not want me) and my grandparents (who very much did), my life was a series of nightmares that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, much less this innocent boy.
    That woman needs to be in an institution. If she is pregnant, those children should not spend one moment alone with her. If there is anything good about this stunt, it’s that changes are very likely to be made to the visitation agreement. This should never be allowed to happen again.

  4. Girl says:

    What an asshole! Did she think they’ve never heard of someone hiding anywhere in a house? The absolute best she could have done for him at that point would have been for her to calmly pass him off to the authorities or had someone in the house do it. How selfish!

  5. Fabgrrl says:

    So fuct up! There was a local story recently about a man who kept his two daughters past his arranged visiting time. They found the two girls the next day, dead from gunshots to the head, in a campground. The man was found too, suicide with the same gun. People are capable of killing their own children! There is often a damn good reason a parent loses custody. Grandmother must have been terrified. Where is the boy’s father?

  6. badrockandroll says:

    The boy’s father is a skank. He has drug problems, and was jailed for beating Mindy.

    The People article is a bit of a whitewash, IMO. If you believe that where there is smoke there is fire, there are enough rumours about Mindy’s volatile early childhood (and not all of them from Mindy) to make one wonder about the general fitness of her mother to look after a child. One can only hope that the court researched these rumours and found them to be unfounded before it handed the boy back to her.

  7. Jag says:

    That’s my big question: how can the court give guardian rights to the woman who helped cause Mindy to be such a mess? I pray that little boy finds some wonderful teachers or other adults to guide him through life, so that he can escape the craziness of his biological family.

  8. KO says:

    that’s some awful photoshopping…

  9. Seal Team 6 says:

    Why isn’t she in prison?!

    And yes, I also thought of Elian.

  10. Kim says:

    Drug addict mom or abusive grandparents?? These are the only choices this poor little boy has? So sad.

  11. SCREEEE says:

    Wow… I really hope Grandma is a better guardian than her. Really, for that poor kid’s sake.

  12. JaneWonderfalls says:

    I had no idea who she was before all of this, I saw the article on my yahoo homepage and now CB.

  13. queen says:

    Poor kid! She needs to get help

    PS, she was engaged to Dean Cain? Oh how I loved him!

  14. Tom says:

    And the grandparents of this child are the epitomy of “good parents?” Like mother like daughter like father like son.