Two women have been charged after leaving three young children unsupervised in a parking lot for hours while they went to a casino in Pickering on Monday, say police.
According to Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS), the children, ages 10, 9, and 2, were located by casino security on the evening of April 8. Staff found the children playing on the roadway near Church Street around 7:45 p.m., police said.
Officers arrived at the scene a short time later after receiving a call for a check for well being, Const. Nicholas Gluckstein, of DRPS, said on Tuesday.
Police said that security footage showed that they had been left alone in a vehicle in the parking lot of Pickering Casino Resort, near Church Street South and Highway 401, for more than four hours.
Gluckstein said that the eldest child told police that he had been left alone by their mother so she could go to the casino.
He also said that the child told them that he'd been given a cell phone to contact the mother, however that device later ran out of battery and died.
The parents of the children, two women. one age 39, from Aurora, and the other a 41-year-old from Markham, were located by police a short time later. They have both been charged with leaving a child unattended under the Child Youth and Family Services Act, DRPS said in a news release published Tuesday.
Police said the Children’s Aid Society has also been contacted and has launched an investigation.
'Extremely dangerous'
Gluckstein said that the area near the casino is especially dangerous for children as there's a creek nearby as well as a live roadway.
"Lots of mishaps could have occurred, and they're very fortunate that they were found safe and sound and they didn't sustain any injuries," he said.
"For very obvious reasons, leaving any child or pets unsupervised in a vehicle is extremely dangerous, let alone 20 minutes, but four hours being a crazy extreme extenuating period."
Gluckstein went on to say that any number of things could have happened to the children who were left unattended for such a long period of time, from them getting into mischief to hurting themselves, being abducted or having a medical emergency, not to mention being in extreme heat or cold in the car.
