WILMINGTON, Del. — A woman was arrested after her 4-year-old took 249 bags of heroin to a day care center and started handing it out, thinking it was candy, police said.

According to the News Journal in Delaware, police were called to the Hickory Tree Child Care Center after staff noticed children with small bags of white powder.

The packets then were taken to the Selbyville Police Department where the powder tested positive as heroin.

It was reported that none of the packets were opened, but all children were checked out as a precaution.

The mother of the child who brought the drugs, Ashley R. Tull, 30, of Selbyville, was charged with maintaining a drug property and three counts of child endangering.

While police say a total of 3.735 grams of heroin were found, enough for a felony possession charge, the mother was not charged for its possession or as a suspected dealer.

Investigators say the girl took the heroin to school “unknowingly” when her mother gave her a different backpack after the family dog ruined hers overnight.

The girl found the heroin and “thinking the packets were candy, she began passing them out to her classmates.”

The child, along with two other children in the home, were placed with a relative and the mother was ordered to have no contact with them, police say.

Source: The News Journal