The Christian parents of eight children said they were threatened with having their children taken away by Florida's Department of Children and Families (DCF) after anti-Christian trolls weaponized child protective services against them. J.D. and Britney Lott have spent the past three years traveling the county, homeschooling their eight children, and documenting their faith-centered journey on Instagram under the username AmericanFamilyRoadTrip, which has more than 607,000 followers.

J.D. Lott told Reason that DCF launched a nationwide manhunt after a Reddit troll contacted the local Florida DCF agency alleging child abuse allegations. Mr. Lott said his family has repeatedly been targeted by a group on Reddit called "FundiSnarkUncencorsed" which makes fun of evangelical Christians.

The Lotts were staying at a campground in Florida and were on their way to Georgia when they received a text message from DCF. The message read: "Please respond we need to follow up and verify the children are safe. If we cannot complete this we will have to see an Order To Take Into Custody which is enforceable nationwide. Please work with us so we do not have to do that. Thank you."

A DCF agent had visited the Florida campground but the family had already departed. Britney Lott just had her eighth child a few months earlier and Redditors in the anti-Christian group claimed that their infant looked "jaundiced, "lethargic," and "severely sunburned" in photos. The unidentified caller told the DCF agency the same accusations that the trolls claimed on Reddit, Lott said.

In a phone call with a county caseworker, J.D. Lott explained: "We have a group of people on Reddit that we've discovered are dedicated to defaming us." The caseworker took Mr. Lott's explanation into account, but later in the day, a DCF supervisor called the family after deciding the case was critical and threatened a nationwide manhunt if they did not turn themselves in for evaluation.

"We have you in our system, and you have to report by the close of the day," the supervisor said, according to J.D. Lott. "And if you don't tell me when you are going to meet with me, we're going to consider you on the run."
 

The Lotts contacted the Texas-based nonprofit, the Family Freedom Project (FFP), which helps families wrongly accused of child abuse by govrnment agency protective services. The FFP gave the Lotts a lawyer who advised them to have a professional doctor at the hospital conduct the investigation.

The doctor determined the eight-month-old baby was perfectly healthy and did not have "jaundice," "lethargy," or a "severe sunburn." The other seven children were also evaluated and were found to be in healthy condition, as reported by the outlet. The medical professional told the Lotts that the police would not be taking the kids into custody after his evaluation.

J.D. Lott called the experience "a knife to the heart." The Lott family decided to go public with the matter to bring awareness to families who have been wrongfully targeted by child protective services.