An Oklahoma couple has been arrested and charged with child neglect after police say they left their three young children home alone in Glenpool while they went to play pickleball roughly 20 minutes away.
Andrew Dick and Feather Roberts were taken into custody on August 30 after Glenpool police responded to their home following a 911 hang-up call that raised concerns for the children’s welfare, according to the Glenpool Police Department.
Officials said a person had contacted Dick and Roberts after the hang-up call, and the couple reportedly said their children were with a babysitter while they were playing pickleball at Courts and Commons in Bixby, a facility about 11 miles from their Glenpool home. When that person went to check on the house, they found the children were alone, police said.
Officers who responded found an eight-year-old and a five-year-old watching television, while a one-year-old was asleep, according to police. The parents later returned home and told officers they had in fact been playing pickleball at the time.
Police said that when they asked how the children would have been able to reach their parents in an emergency, “Roberts stated the children had access to an iPad they could use to call,” according to the department.
Investigators also said the couple has an infant child who, at the time, was in the care of a babysitter at a separate location. During the course of the investigation, officers said they developed information indicating the children had been left without adult supervision on previous occasions as well.
Dick and Roberts were each charged with three counts of child neglect, one for each of the three children found alone in the home.
Child neglect charges generally apply when a parent or caregiver fails to provide necessary supervision, care or protection for a child, particularly when that failure places the child at risk of harm. Such charges do not require proof that a child was actually injured, only that the required care or supervision was not provided.
Both Dick and Roberts have been charged but not convicted, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. Further details on their court proceedings were not immediately available.
Source: Dailymail.com
