An Upper Gwynedd man has been charged with felony child endangerment after he allegedly left an infant in his vehicle while running an errand at Best Buy last month.
Police were dispatched to the 800 block of Bethlehem Pike at 10:47 a.m. on June 21 for a report of a black Jeep Wrangler running in the parking lot with an unattended baby inside. Dispatch relayed to police the vehicle was located five parking spaces from the front entrance to Best Buy.
Police said a witness had pulled their vehicle next to the unattended Jeep and observed the vehicle was running and the driver’s window was open. When the witness returned from Best Buy approximately 15 minutes later, they said the Jeep was still running and unattended, and they then also noticed there was an infant in a child seat in the back seat of the vehicle, according to charging documents.
The witness then called 911.
Upon arrival, police located the vehicle and observed a male — later identified as 54-year-old Abel Maldonado-Gomez — peering into the vehicle as if he was checking on something, police said. Maldonado-Gomez proceeded to enter the vehicle, at which point police made contact and confirmed an infant was in the rear child seat, the report states.
When asked about the vehicle and baby being left unattended, Maldonado-Gomez allegedly told police that he was dropping off a computer in the store’s Geek Squad section, and he was only away from the vehicle for 10 minutes as he waited for an employee to fill out paperwork. Police said, however, that there was no line of sight between the Geek Squad area and the Jeep, and surveillance footage showed Maldonado-Gomez had been in the store for 21 minutes.
Maldonado-Gomez confirmed to police that he left the vehicle running with the key in the ignition, all doors unlocked, and the driver’s window open with the infant in the backseat, according to the complaint.
Court records show charges were officially against Maldonado-Gomez on July 6, at which point he was arraigned by District Judge Denise Ashe, who set bail at $2,500 unsecured on a felony charge of endangering the welfare of a child and a misdemeanor charge of recklessly endangering another person.
His preliminary hearing has been scheduled for July 19 at 1:15 p.m. in front of District Judge Andrea Duffy.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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