Two men are facing criminal charges after they left a 5-year-old boy home alone while they tried to go buy beer.
Harlingen police arrested 22-year-old Joel Gantt and 18-year-old David Gonzalez on child abandonment with intent to return charges on Wednesday.
Court records show that both men were drunk when they tried to buy beer at the H-E-B grocery store on Commerce Street but were refused.
Police officers found Gonzalez's car at the La Casita Apartments off Sam Houston Drive. Court records show that both men appeared intoxicated.
Officers initally arrested Gonzalez for DWI and Gantt for public intoxication but learned they left left Gantt's 5-year-old son at home.
"Mr. Gantt became belligerent and stated he wasn't going to tell me sh**," the officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Gantt refused to tell the officer which apartment he lived but the officer remembered going to the apartment during a previous call where Gantt and Gonzalez had gotten into a fight.
Police were able to enter the apartment through an unlocked sliding door in the rear of the apartment and found the boy alone with the television left on with the volume extremely loud.
The boy told officers that his dad and uncle had gone to the store.
Officers contacted the boy's mother at her job and she came to take care of the boy. Court records show the case has been reported to Child Protective Services.
As of Friday morning, both Gantt and Gonzalez remained in the Cameron County Jail under child abandonment with intent to return charges.
Gantt has a $15,000 dollar bond while Gonzalez has a $10,000 dollar bond.
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