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Deputies: Seffner Man Tried To Leave Baby At Strip Club

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 28, 2008

TAMPA - Minouche Eliasin said that when the man with the 6-month-old baby in the car asked whether he could use her cell phone, she knew something was not right.

It wasn't just that Eliasin works at Showgirls Men's Club in Plant City, where babies are not allowed.

"It was the way he was acting," said Eliasin, 23, who works the door at the club. "He had his keys in his hand, and he seemed like he was intoxicated."

It was just before 8 p.m. Sunday. The man, she said, wanted to use the pay phone outside the club to call someone about dropping off the baby. But the pay phone wasn't working, so he came into the club and asked to use her cell phone.

Eliasin said her suspicion increased when she looked outside and noticed the baby was in the car, a blue Toyota, with the windows up.

"I asked, 'Where's the mom?' " Eliasin recalled during a telephone interview. The man, she said, was evasive.

As he went outside to use the cell phone, she said, she watched him to make sure he did not take off with it.

He came back inside the club, but the baby was still in the car.

She told him to get the baby out of the car.

It was sweaty and had a wet diaper, she said.

He asked her not to call the cops. She told him to go out to the car, get a change of clothes, a diaper and a bottle. When he returned, he once again asked her not to call authorities.

After about 10 minutes with the man, Eliasin said, she figured there was something very wrong and had her manager call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. In the meantime, she said, she knew she had to keep him there.

She asked again about the mother.

The man ignored her, she said, so she took off the baby's clothes.

She asked him again, and he ignored her again, she said.

A friend of hers gave the baby the bottle.

"He was freaking out," she said. "I said, 'tell me what is going on.'"

Finally the man broke down, repeatedly telling her his plan.

He wanted to leave the baby at the strip club, Eliasin said.

"He just kept saying, 'I need someone to watch the baby for a week or two,'" Eliasin said. "'I'll come back. You guys are so nice. Thanks, I appreciate it.' "

Robert Hancock

The man said he had taken the boy from his grandparents' house and people were looking for the child. He then asked whether he and the baby could stay with Eliasin "for a day or two."

About 10 minutes after her manager called, deputies showed up and arrested the man, 44-year-old Robert Hancock of 6427 Black Dairy Road in Seffner.

He was charged with neglect of a child, a felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor.

Hancock smelled of alcohol, his eyes were glassy and he was unsteady on his feet, deputies say. When deputies went out to his car, they found drug paraphernalia in the center console, according to a report. He was hit with an additional charge of possessing drug paraphernalia.

"The defendant showed a wanton disregard for the safety and welfare of this child by driving with the child while under the influence of alcohol and attempting to give his child to a complete stranger," states the report.

Hancock is being held at the Orient Road Jail. Bail was set at $3,000.

"I never saw a baby in here before," Eliasin said. "I am pregnant myself, and I knew something was wrong."

Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629

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