"I'm Not Watchin' Them!"

So this week I only work two days before I take a much anticipated and needed international vacation. Sunday was interesting when I was hit with an abandoned child call early in the shift.

The call remarks stated a female came home to move her stuff out of the house and found eight kids ranging in age from 1 year to 9 years alone. Obviously we treat this type of call as high priority. I arrive on scene and find out the female is a tenant and the man supposedly watching the kids is the landlord who also lives at the location (which is essentially a rooming house). As bad as it sounds, no law was broken. The man, who is the grandfather of the kids. Left the house with an adult of legal age home. The kids were never "abandoned". He just should have told someone he was leaving. The female got upset that she was de facto placed in charge of the kids and flat out told me "I'm not watchin' them!". I told her if she just left and left the kids alone, she would actually be the one facing charges in the situation.

I called the man on his phone and found out he was at the pharmacy grabbing his blood pressure medication and he told me he never left the kids alone because there was an 80 year old male tenant in the house. I checked with the male and found out he was there, but had no idea the landlord was gone. I waited around to talk to the male to let him know he needs to at least tell people he's leaving. The kids were fine and not injured but then the real story came out.

The female tenant was in the process of being evicted for allegedly stealing items from the landlord (keys and a computer). She and the landlord had been feuding in and out of court and when she realized the male was gone she called 911 to get even with him. It wasn't enough to charge her but she got a good education on the meaning of child abandonment. She gathered her items and left.