(KEYE/CNN) - A Texas mother is in legal hot water after police say she left her two very young children home alone so she could go to an exercise class.
A police report said Tuesday morning, an 18-month-old toddler was found wandering near a busy section of a neighborhood where the speed limit is 40 miles per hour.
And just down the street was the baby’s 2-and-a-half-year-old brother, also alone, crying for his mom.
“Even now, my head hurts just thinking about it,” said the children’s father, Jose Arredondo. He tried to explain wife Gisela Sanchez-Flores’ actions.
“She thought it was going to be a quick errand, but things happened in a flash,” Arredondo said.
He said his wife was late for Zumba and decided to leave their two children home alone, because they were still sleeping.
But she took the 18-month-old she was babysitting with her to class.
After she left, her children woke up, and one of them opened the front door.
A neighbor spotted the 18-month-old walking outside and called police.
An officer responding to the scene found the 2-and-a-half-year-old boy wandering the streets alone nearby.
“It’s an accident but a very dangerous one,” the children’s father said.
Arredondo said his wife usually take her two children with her to Zumba.
Moving forward, they’re doing things differently.
“Sometimes the things that we do can be lessons in life - that you can’t do certain things,” Arredondo said.
Sanchez-Flores is charged with one felony count of abandoning a child with intent to return.
Courtesy: KEYE via CNN Newsource