At least one dad in Arizona was arrested because he reportedly left his four kids in a hot car while he went to an adult store.
At 3:40 p.m. Thursday, someone called the Phoenix Police Department to say that there were four kids in a car that was turned off and the windows were up. The call came from the parking lot of The Adult Shoppe, which is near 24th and Madison streets. The police got into the car, took the kids out, gave them water, and put them in a cruiser with air conditioning.
This is what the police department said about body camera video: “Where’s mom or dad?” an officer asked as they were saving the kids.
It sounds like another cop asked, “Do you know where your guys’ family is?”
The kids, who were all said to be younger than 10, were clearly having problems because of the heat. The car was at least 124 degrees.
Police say that the father of the children, Ascencio Largo, 38, was found inside the store, where he had been for almost an hour. He is now being charged with abusing a child.
After hearing the accusations, the judge scolded him and said he might be facing more serious charges.
“You could have exited that store to a car full of your dead children which is rather shocking,” a judge said.
The judge also said that Largo didn’t answer when police went inside the store and then supposedly pretended that the car wasn’t his when he came outside.
The judge said, “It shows a high level of reckless responsibility.” He also said that Largo is lucky that the situation did not turn out badly.
“You are presumed innocent, but what the police are alleging could have resulted in, you know, the kind of story that gets picked up on international news wires: Man goes into porno store leaving his four children to die in their car,” the judge said.
Largo is still being held in the Maricopa County Jail on a $5,000 bond. He has another court date coming up on Thursday.
