A father from San Jose is accused of leaving his two children alone in a car overnight for more than 14 hours until they were discovered by police in Milpitas.
Police say they received a call from a resident in the 200 block of North Hillview Drive reporting a suspicious vehicle just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Neighbors say one of the children was using a foot to honk the SUV’s horn.
When they arrived at the scene, officers found an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl inside the unlocked SUV.
The kids were unaccompanied. They had been left by their father, 29-year-old Julio Reyes, at 10 p.m. Tuesday night, according to police.
Temperatures in Milpitas dipped into the low 40s early Wednesday morning, NBC Bay Area meteorologist Jeff Ranieri reports.
Police were initially unable to track Reyes down. But, late Wednesday night, Reyes called the Milpitas Police Department to report his vehicle and children as missing. He was subsequently interviewed by police and arrested.
Reyes faces two counts of felony child endangerment.
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Disheveled and hungry, but in fine condition, the two children were taken into protective custody and later transferred to the custody of the Department of Family and Children’s Services.
“The first thing we did was get them food,” Milpitas Police Sgt. Raj Maharaj said. “We wanted to make sure we had some nutrition in them before we started doing any interviews.”
Police have not said why Reyes said he left his children behind.
Police say the children’s mother was at work and had no idea any of this was going on until they contacted her.
