Child's Easter egg "hatches" Xanax pill

ROSEVILLE, Mich. - Police in Roseville, Mich. are investigating after a 4-year-old preschool girl brought home a plastic Easter egg containing a potentially dangerous pill, reports CBS Detroit.

That pill was the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, according to the girl's mother, Amber Pruchniewski, who found the drug in the egg the child brought back from a hunt at Huron Park Elementary School.

"She had brought a couple of the eggs in the house with her. We're opening them up and going through them and we noticed a little white thing," Pruchniewski told CBS Detroit. "I picked it up; I thought it was some kinda weird candy, and it turned out to be a pill."

"So I Googled it to see what it was and it turned out to be a generic Xanax," she said.

According to Pruchniewski, the eggs for the school egg hunt were all donated by parents of kids in the preschool class.

She notified the principal and police, who are investigating.

"I'm not an expert in it by any imagination, but you would think, just for body weight, any adult-size pill of any type of prescription drug could cause harm to a smaller child like that," said Roseville Police Chief Donald Glandon.

Thankfully, the girl didn't ingest the pill.

"We're all just fortunate, along with the parent and the child, that nothing happened; that she didn't take the pill or eat the pill, thinking it was candy or anything. It was something that could have turned into a tragic situation that was avoided," said Glandon.

Glandon thinks the incident was intentional and criminal, reports the station.

"The individual most likely had the intention to get it into the hands of a child, and who knows what they were thinking," the chief said.

He added, "I will have to see what the school can provide us, as far as with a list of participants or those who may have donated the eggs, and go from there. It's just too early to tell right now whether or not, ultimately, the suspect will be identified or not."

Glandon said if they can find the culprit, the person or people involved could face any number of charges.

While Roseville Community Schools superintendent John Kment says no other parents reported finding anything unusual in the eggs, Pruchniewski remains concerned.

"I'm afraid to let my kids do anything at school anymore," she said. "If they have any kind of function they're not going to be able to participate if this is going to happen."