Ventura County helicopter helps find child endangerment suspect
CARPINTERIA - A Carpinteria father is accused of child endangerment after authorities say he left his 6-year-old daughter alone in their car in a parking lot for hours.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office says at about 11:30 p.m. Monday, deputies responded to a report of a 6-year-old child who was crying and looking for her father. The child’s father reportedly pulled over to use the restroom at Viola Fields in the 6100 block of Carpinteria Avenue, authorities said.
The child was left in the vehicle and after waiting for several hours went looking for her father in the dark parking lot, eventually asking a custodian at a nearby business for help. When deputies arrived, they helped search for her father, a 39-year-old Carpinteria resident, authorities reported.
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Deputies searched the area, and a sheriff’s K-9 team and a Ventura County helicopter were called in to assist.
The air crew spotted the father walking along the beach, authorities said, and he jumped into the ocean and began swimming away.
After more than an hour in the water, he was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to a hospital for treatment. Authorities said they planned to booked him in county jail on suspicion of child endangerment.
Child Welfare Services responded to Carpinteria and spoke to both the mother and the child. The child was frightened but fortunately not injured. She was reunited with her mother and released to her custody.