A Suffolk mother was charged with child abuse and neglect after allegedly locking her 9-year-old child out the house because he lost a hairbrush.

Christine Travita Williams-Porter, 35, told police officers she would rather go to jail than allow her son back in the house. Then, city spokeswoman Debbie George said, “she went and got her coat and her purse.”

The incident began when police received a call on Monday about 8:30 p.m. that a child had been beaten and was outside the house in the 400 block of Wilson Street.

When police arrived, the child told the officers he had been locked out because he lost a hairbrush, George said.

The officers tried to reason with the mother, George said. That’s when she volunteered to go to jail, rather than let her son inside.

The officers gave her just what she asked for, taking her to Western Tidewater Regional Jail and booking her before she posted bond.

The woman’s four children were sent to stay with family members and friends, George said.