An a California man is behind bars after he falsely reported his 7-year-old granddaughter had gone missing, when he actually pawned her off so he could get a drink.
California man falsely reports child’s kidnapping
The incident unfolded in the parking lot of a Sacramento bar at around 7:45 p.m. on Monday night.
The grandfather sparked concern from bystanders when he frantically claimed to be searching for his 7-year-old granddaughter, whom he claimed had been kidnapped by human traffickers.
However, the plot thickened when authorities discovered the grandfather, identified as 54-year-old Jason Warren, was extremely wasted at the time of the report.
After some questioning by the police, the drunk grandpa ended up admitting that the girl had not been kidnapped, but he wanted to go to a bar, and paid a homeless woman $20 to look after the child.
Warren told the woman to take the little girl to a nearby thrift store, then guzzled drinks for four hours at the watering hole.
Deputies began searching for the girl, who was seen leaving the the thrift store with the homeless woman.
Luckily, when police began combing the area for the missing child, the homeless woman heard them give her description over a helicopter loud speaker and returned her to the parking lot she was originally abandoned in by her grandfather.
The homeless woman, identified by KXTV-TV as Lauren Jope, told the local news outlet how the interaction went down.
“I was just walking down the street, and this guy asked me, ‘Can you go in the store with my daughter to buy a pair of shorts?'” she recounted.
According to Jope, Warren gave her $20 for the errand but seemed too impaired to properly care for the child, which is why she took the girl to her encampment to feed her.
“After we’d gotten something to eat, we walked back up the hill and all the sudden the helicopter is going around and then, ‘Attention on the ground, attention on the ground,’ and it said her name and describes me,” she told the outlet.
Warren’s granddaugher corroborated Jope’s account, then was given a clean bill of health by medical professionals after she appeared to be unbothered by the day’s events.
California man arrested for child endangerment
“I’m glad that I was walking when I was, because, she could have been left with some man, or someone who doesn’t want to watch her, or something like that, someone who doesn’t really care,” the homeless woman remarked.
The police eventually discovered that the child’s aunt was the child’s legal guardian, but had left her in the care of her grandfather so she could go to work for the day. She was safely returned to her aunt later in the day.
Warren was arrested and faces charges including felony child endangerment among others and is currently held at the Sacramento County Main Jail with bail set at $75,000.
California man coldcocks grandpa walking with an infant in a stroller
Elsewhere in California, Santa Barbara police arrested a 29-year-old man for allegedly sucker punching a grandfather pushing an infant in a stroller to the ground out of nowhere.
Angel Sanchez Jr. was caught on home security cameras walking towards the grandfather and throwing a left-handed punch that knocked the man over and tipped the baby’s stroller onto the pavement.
California: Angel Sanchez Jr, 29, from Santa Barbara, was arrested Tuesday for suckerpunching a man in his 60s who was pushing his infant granddaughter in a stroller in a Calabasas neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/6gQQ1oOCaE
— Dixie (@OSiiNT) December 8, 2023
Minutes later, Sanchez Jr. attacked 14-year-old Nathan Manyari while he was walking in the same neighborhood.
“He grabbed my collarbone area, pulled me back, tried hitting the back of my head and kneeing my face, too,” the teenage boxer told ABC7. “I protected myself … He just walked away after that, and I just ran to my gym because I saw my coach.”
Sanchez Jr. was taken into custody the same day and charged with assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.
The Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station doesn’t know the motive behind the attacks, but noted that all three victims were Asian.
