An Arizona couple was arrested after leaving their 2-year-old son home alone while they drove around playing Pokémon Go, authorities said.
A neighbor called 911 Thursday night reporting she had found the frightened toddler outside the child's house, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in a statement Monday.
Deputies found the child screaming and crying and trying to get into his home, the sheriff said. He was barefoot, dirty, and wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt, authorities said.
The toddler was red-faced and sweating, the sheriff said.
He was “locked out of his home in 96-degree weather with no water while his parents were gone interacting with their smart phone game,” Babeu said.
After finding a phone number for the father, Brent Daley, a deputy called and informed Daley his son had been found abandoned, Babeu said. The dad replied, “Whatever,” and hung up, the sheriff said.
About an hour later, the parents returned home while the deputies were still there and said they had "left their child asleep while they went to get gas,” Babeu said.
Daley, 27, and wife, Brianne, 25, were arrested on child abuse and neglect charges, authorities said. They were released without bail on their own recognizance, the department’s spokesman, Mark Clark, told Inside Edition.com.
Both admitted after their arrests that they had been driving around playing the popular internet game, Babeu said. The child was left alone for about 90 minutes, authorities said.
It was not clear whether the parents had retained an attorney. The child is now in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services.
Source: Yahoo news
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