WARNING Parents: Little boy dies tragically after playing ‘hide and seek’ inside a dryer

A Texas boy has died after police say he climbed into a tumble dryer during a game of “hide and seek” and got electrocuted on Friday.

ABC13 reports that 10-year-old Fernando Hernandez Jr. climbed into a dryer at a Houston area apartment complex off of the 12300 block of Fleming Drive on Friday evening while playing with his friends. His friends later found him unresponsive and called for help.

Investigators first thought the boy had suffocated inside the dryer, but the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office listed the boy’s cause of death as electrocution.

“I don’t know what happened,” the boy’s mother, Christina Rodriguez, said. “I was just inside cooking and my little son came inside and told me my son was dead on the floor.”

In addition to the risk of electrocution, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that children should never play in dryers because the door latch can trap them inside if the door shuts, especially older dryers that lack the safety features of many of today’s dryers.

Fernando Hernandez Jr. was a third-grader at Harris Elementary School.

[Feature Photo: Pixabay]