Associated Press
A UC-San Diego engineering student who was left in a DEA holding cell for nearly five days (because… well, the agents forgot about him) is now filing a $20 million claim against federal authorities. The undergrad, Daniel Chong, was picked up last month during a drug raid after spending the night at a friend’s apartment (DEA agents apparently found 18,000 ecstasy hits and weapons in the apartment). Chong was left in a windowless room for more than four days without food or water, where he became border-line delusional, drank his own urine, hallucinated, attempted to kill himself with broken glass, and tried to carve “Sorry Mom” into his arm. But that’s not all:
In a particularly bizarre twist, Chong says he found a bag of meth in his cell and ingested it as the days wore on, rendering him “completely insane.”
An agent opened the cell Wednesday afternoon and eventually called paramedics. Chong was treated for dehydration, cramps and a perforated lung caused by ingesting glass.
Keep in mind: Chong was never arrested and never charged for a crime.
