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5 Children Found Safely After Wandering In Harm's Way

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

Updated: 10/19/2007 12:22 am

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TAMPA - They were dirty, some wearing diapers and alone in dangerous places. Some of them weren't even old enough to speak.

Five children - in three separate incidents over an 18-hour stretch - were found unsupervised as their parents and caregivers slept, authorities said.

The sometimes frightened children ranged in age from 1 to 6. In two incidents, toddlers were playing on or near busy streets while their parents dozed inside their homes, and in the third, a 6-year-old was playing near railroad tracks while his father slept nearby in his truck.

In two incidents, parents were charged with felony child neglect. In the third, which involved three toddlers found playing on Himes Avenue under the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, police continued their investigation, but said charges were not likely because it may have been the result of miscommunication between adults over who was watching the children.

'We don't see that many kids that have been completely left alone,' said Jeff Rainey, chief executive officer of Hillsborough Kids Inc., which oversees local foster care and adoptions for the state. 'We do see with younger kids, parents not supervising them closely enough.'

Often, inadequate supervision is linked to substance abuse, he said, but sometimes it's more about the household dynamics. Does the parent work at night? Can they afford day care?

'It's real easy when you've got two or three young children, it's real easy for one or the other to wander off,' Rainey said. 'But the minute you turn your back, something bad can happen.'

The recent cases involve families that were not in the system, Rainey said.

'They Looked ... Like Zombies'

In the Himes Avenue incident, authorities said Good Samaritans pulled their car over and got the children out of the roadway just as Tampa Fire Rescue, which happened to be in the area, arrived.

The three dirty toddlers - a 1-year-old girl and boys ages 2 and 3 - apparently got out of their house on South Drexel Avenue when there was a miscommunication in their home about who was watching them, and the adult caregivers fell asleep, according to Detective Eric Wilkinson.

At this point, Wilkinson said he didn't expect charges to be filed, but he noted the investigation was continuing.

Driving north on South Himes Avenue to buy supplies for their fire station, Tampa Fire Rescue paramedic Chris Bruns and firefighter Cesar Nino pulled over upon seeing the children covered in concrete powder with some passers-by.

There is a bag of concrete in the back yard of the home, according to Wilkinson.

'They looked kind of like zombies because they were full of dust,' Bruns said. 'It was caked in their hair.'

The children were wearing 'minimal clothing,' said Capt. Bill Wade, spokesman for Tampa Fire Rescue. The 3-year-old was wearing only a dirty diaper.

The children seemed dazed, Bruns said.

'The children were scared but not crying,' Wade said. 'They did not talk, just kind of pointed in a general direction when asked where they lived. ... Somebody recognized the children and told police where the children lived nearby.'

Nino, a father of three, said he felt 'sad and worried' about the youngsters.

'I have kids, and I know those kids were lost,' he said.

He and Bruns used saline to clean up the children, then transported them to Tampa General Hospital to be examined while police looked for their parents.

'Himes Avenue is a very busy road,' Wade said. 'There's a lot of traffic, and it's a wide-open road. It's a very dangerous situation for children, let alone children this age.'

Wilkinson said the mother of two of the children and her cousin were in the home, and that both adults work night shifts. The 3-year-old boy is the woman's nephew, Wilkinson said.

Police later said they had interviewed both of the children's mothers.

Door Left Unlocked, Gate Open

On Wednesday night, police charged a woman with felony child neglect after they found her 2-year-old son unattended and running along a sidewalk next to a four-lane portion of North Boulevard, they say.

Latasha Regina Kendrick, 26, of Tampa, appeared to have just woken up when she answered the door after an officer knocked, an arrest affidavit states. Kendrick told an officer she thought her child was playing in the house, and she admitted to taking pain medication an hour before the officer's arrival.

Her home's back door was unlocked, and a gate was open.

Kendrick, of 701 W. Indiana Ave., knew the medication causes drowsiness, the affidavit states.

She remains in Orient Road Jail with bail set at $2,000.

Father Found Asleep At Wheel

In yet another incident Wednesday, Tampa police found a 6-year-old boy playing near railroad tracks while his father was asleep behind a pickup's wheel.

Officers didn't initially arrest Ronald Bartels, the boy's father. Instead, he was arrested hours later after police were called back to the same location, Busch Boulevard under the Interstate 275 overpass.

When they returned Wednesday night, they learned the child had eaten only a few peanut butter crackers and had '2 or 3 sips of water' since 7:30 a.m., an arrest report states.

Police arrested Bartels, 39, at 7:30 p.m. and charged him with felony child neglect.

Bartels later was charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia after police searched his right-front pocket and found a white plastic straw with a white residue inside it. A field test showed positive results for cocaine, the report states.

Officers initially spoke to Bartels at 11 a.m. Wednesday but found nothing improper going on, Tampa police spokesman Jared Douds said.

About 4 p.m., officers Lisa Sheppard and Michael A. Skypack responded to the scene and saw the truck on the south side of Busch.

Sheppard spotted Bartels asleep at the wheel with his 'head down and drool coming from his mouth,' an arrest report states. It took several minutes to wake Bartels, and he was 'out of it' when he woke.

Sheppard also saw the child playing in front of the truck, near railroad tracks.

Bartels, of 5821 Maple Lane, told the officers there was another man with them who had just left to get drinks at a store. Skypack went to the store and found the man, Richard Woodham, who said he had been gone 15 to 20 minutes to get drinks, the report states.

Woodham seemed rational and provided the child water and crackers, according to the statement. The men made arrangements to have someone get the three of them within half an hour.

'Because of the volume of calls for service at that time of day, we trusted the two men to get the child out of there safely and went on to the next call,' the report states.

Douds said the incident didn't meet the threshold to arrest Bartels because of the totality of the circumstances, including the fact that Woodham was 'at least generally present.'

But about three hours later, Skypack and Sheppard responded to a call for service at the same location.

They found Bartels 'passed out' and had to be awakened.

Woodham wasn't present, Douds said.

Call 911 If You Find Children

Andy Ritter, spokesman for the Department of Children & Families SunCoast Region, said if children are found in dangerous places, people should get them into a safe environment and then call 911.

That will alert law enforcement officials, who are mandatory reporters and can call the Florida Abuse Hotline, Ritter said.

'Trust is an issue with kids,' he said. 'Someone in uniform is typically someone a child trusts as opposed to you or me in our civilian clothes,' he said.

Letting children wander alone in dangerous situations would be considered inadequate supervision, which falls under neglect, Ritter said. And neglect is by far the most cause for investigation, he said.

The Florida Abuse Hotline number is 1-800-96-ABUSE. Go to www.dcf.fl.us/abuse/ for information about who should make a report, when and how.

Reporters Josh Poltilove, Sherri Ackerman and Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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