According to his mother, the boy arrived home before his parents and was locked out of the house, so he shot some hoops in the yard until they arrived.

A neighbor saw the child outside alone and called the local police. When his mother and father arrived home, they were met by a police officer, who arrested them for child negligence.

Robert Bianchi and Steve Raiser joined Clayton Morris on “Fox and Friends Weekend” to debate whether these charges are excessive.

“He didn’t know where his parents were. He was locked out of his house. And he didn’t have access to emergency services, shelter, food, things like that,” Bianchi said.

Raiser countered that there was no danger from the neglect and felony charges may actually cause more damage in this case.

“What is important is in Florida there is no minimum age where a child cannot be left alone at home,” Raiser said. “Where is the greater harm? In this government overreach, where they come in and kind of steamroll this family and try to address some sort of neglect charge, they created the harm, because they removed the 11-year-old child from home, along with his four-year-old brother, for a month, in and out of foster care.”

“This is a typical example of when government goes too far and actually creates a worse situation than before.”

Watch the “Fox and Friends Weekend” clip above.

The parents spoke out recently to Reason magazine. The mother stated:

The authorities claim he had no access to water or shelter.  We have an open shed in the back yard and 2 working sinks and 2 hoses.  They said he had no food.  He ate his snacks already.  He had no bathroom, but the responding officer found our yard good enough to relieve himself in while our son sat in a police car alone.  In his own yard, in a state,  Florida, that has no minimum age for children to be alone.