Dad plays poker, leaving kids in the car

A 36-year-old father of two in Jacksonville, Fla., was arrested Wednesday after leaving his children in the car while he played poker.

A witness saw the two boys, ages 3 and 7, sitting alone in the parked car outside St. Johns Greyhound Park with the motor running and called the St. Johns County Sheriff Office.

When officers arrived at the scene the 7-year-old boy told them that his father, Terrence Davis, was inside the poker room at the race track. They found Davis in the poker room, and he claimed that he had only been playing four or five hands.

Davis was arrested and the boys were picked up by their mother. Davis was charged with two accounts of child neglect, and the bond was sat to $2,000.

A spokesman for the racetrack said that Davis will be banned from the three Northeast Florida greyhound tracks and their poker rooms. The track will also make security changes in order to prevent similar incidents.

courtesy of Henrik Nilsson-Dahlbom

News Added: 21 July, 2007

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