ORLANDO, Fla. — A father was arrested on Thanksgiving Day on a felony child neglect charge after he left his 2-month-old son alone in a car outside a store, police said.
Haider Hassan Khudhair Darwash, 34, was booked into the Orange County Jail after the arrest Thursday evening.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Trooper Edy Rivera was working an off-duty detail at a Best Buy in the Waterford Lakes shopping center for Black Friday when a man approached him and told him there was a baby alone in a car.
The infant was asleep in the back seat of the locked car when Rivera found him, officials said. Rivera then went inside the store and announced on the public address system that he was trying to find the parents of the child or the owner of the car.
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After about 10 minutes, no one came forward, and the trooper broke the window but could not get the child to wake up, a patrol spokesman said. Paramedics were called, but the child was not harmed.