The child told her mother a little boy had brought "teeth" to preschool.
Of all the things her 4-year-old daughter brings home from preschool — a picture proudly drawn in crayon or a note from a caregiver — "teeth" were not something Sabrina Straker expected to see.
Or, as a drug test later determined, tiny chunks of crack cocaine.
Look, little Serenity said as she showed her mom. A boy at school gave me his tooth.
Straker said she thought the situation was strange.
"I told her, 'He needs to put that under his pillow so the tooth fairy will come,'" the mother told InsideEdition.com Thursday. "I was examining it, and she brings me more."
As it turned out, there were several tiny plastic containers in Serenity's book bag, and the more Straker looked at the pieces, the less they looked like teeth.
She showed them to her fiance, and he didn't know what they were, either. So off they went to the local precinct in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood. The officer at the front desk had no clue. Then came a narcotics detective. "He took it and walked away and he looked angry," Straker said.
Later, he returned and said, "Ma'am, that's crack cocaine." The detective "couldn't believe it," Straker said. She couldn't believe it, either.
The detective was very upset, Straker said, and turned away for a moment. He sees drugs all the time, he told her, "but to see a 4-year-old with it, that was too much for him."
Serenity piped up, saying it tasted terrible. That's when she said she put one of the rocks in her mouth, but spit it out.
So off they all went again, this time to an emergency room, where a toxicology screen showed the little girl had cocaine in her system.
Serenity had been more hyper than usual when she came home from preschool. Now her behavior made more sense. Straker had at first thought her daughter had eaten too much sugar at day care.
"She just couldn't help herself," her mom said. "She couldn't stop talking. Even at the hospital, she was still up and going nonstop like the Energizer Bunny."
Her manic state lasted about 24 hours, and she's fine now, according to Straker.
She added that her daughter has been going to the day care center in their neighborhood since she was 2. A phone message left for the manager by InsideEdition.com was not immediately returned.
The preschool remains open while police investigate. Straker said Serenity won't be going back.
"I'm so disappointed," the mother said, adding that there shouldn't be "crack cocaine at a day care."
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