Two Oklahoma City parents face felony child neglect charges after allegedly leaving their two toddlers home alone, claiming that a babysitter didn't arrive as expected.
On November 3, a concerned driver found their three-year-old daughter wandering in the street near Northwest 16th and Villa Avenue and notified authorities after a nearby resident identified the child's parents, Rudy Lopez and Jessica Lopez-Paz, who were not home at the time.
Officers arrived on the scene to discover the child's two-year-old brother alone inside the house, court documents obtained by KFOR show. Police say they waited for more than an hour before the parents returned home.
"That is absolutely unacceptable," neighbor Amber Carrigan told KFOR. "You cannot leave a child in diapers at home by themselves... It's just disheartening. It's scary."
When questioned, Lopez and Lopez-Paz allegedly told police that they had left the door locked and a cell phone for the children, supposedly because the babysitter didn't arrive. However, police believe this was a fabrication.
Carrigan and other neighbors expressed alarm over the children's vulnerability, highlighting the potential dangers they could have faced. "They could have been long gone," Carrigan said. "I mean, they could have been kidnapped...There's so many things that could have happened."
"Leaving them for five minutes alone...is not even acceptable," Carrigan, a mother herself, added.
News 4 reporters attempted to speak with Lopez-Paz, who has since been released on bond, but she declined to comment.
Originally published on Latin Times.
