In Texas, a four-year-old boy is in state custody after his father reportedly threw him out of the vehicle onto a West Texas highway lined with cacti.

Angel Flores had to have at least 500 cactus spines removed from his body after his father, Carlos Rico, pushed him out of his car along Interstate 20 around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Police Chief Jim Kelley from nearby Streetwater told the Abilene Reporter-News that Rico, 22, “threw the boy out of the car like a bag of garbage.”