Another Parent Charged With Leaving Child In Car While Gambling at Parx Casino
By Brad Segall, Todd Quinones
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- A Philadelphia man has been charged with leaving his toddler son inside a hot car over the Fourth of July weekend while he was inside a local casino playing blackjack.
Bensalem (Bucks County), Pa. police were called to the parking lot at Parx Casino on Saturday night, where they found an 18-month-old boy inside a Lexus.
According to police, the child was alone, screaming, and sweating profusely. They say his father, 44-year-old Danny Ngo of Adams Avenue in Philadelphia, was inside gambling.
Bensalem public safety director Fred Harran says the child was checked out without any serious problems, but it could have been worse.
"It could have been a fatality," Harran tells KYW Newsradio. "This was 9:30 at night, it was 88 degrees outside. The temperature in the car was much higher than that, according to the officer."
"The temperature that day and since then has been sweltering, so you can imagine what it was like inside that vehicle for that child," Bensalem Township Police Sergeant Andrew Aninsman said.
The father is now charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
"This individual is where he should be, which is in Bucks County Prison right now," Aninsman said.
His bail was set at $100,000.
Surveillance video shows the father was in the casino for about 40 minutes.
"He thought he just ran in there for a few minutes," says Harran, "but it never is the few minutes that they think -- it's always a lot longer."
The child is doing fine and was not seriously injured.
Harran says the number of kids left in cars at Parx has dropped dramatically in recent years, thanks to stepped up enforcement by the gambling hall.
