Vacationing Parents Get Sitter For Dogs, Leave Kids Alone

[The Straight Story]

Vacationing Parents Get Sitter For Dogs, Leave Kids Alone
9-Year-Old Had To Care For 5-Year-Old With Autism

POSTED: 8:17 am EST January 5, 2006

MANTECA, Calif. -- A married couple who got a dog sitter for their puppies but left the man's young children home alone while they vacationed in Las Vegas were arrested Wednesday, police said.

Jacob Calero, 39, and Michelle De La Vega, 32, were taken into custody as they arrived home on a flight to Oakland. They had left town Friday to celebrate the new year, authorities said.

The couple apparently told 9-year-old Joshua to look after his 5-year-brother, Jason, who is autistic. The children spent one night alone before police found them.

The grandmother, Libbey Holden, said she called police because she had suspected the couple left the children at home in San Ramon, about 35 miles east of San Francisco.

http://www.local6.com/news/5859640/detail.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. Unf#$king Believable!

I fear for these kids when their parents are around also.

[SmokingJacket]

2. Not too much can make me cry these days, but this story did

Imagining that nine-yr-old putting his brother to bed. Oh, dear.

[AlCzervik]

3. sometimes i really hate people.

[azmouse]

4. Things like this seem to happen every couple of years.

What is wrong with these people that they value their dogs over their children???

[Greyhound]

11. Things like this happen every day. They just get reported

every couple of years.

[trotsky]

5. You know, I'll take whatever flames will come from saying this, but...

people like this are an argument for forced sterilization.

[Sequoia]

6. Joshua said his parents loved puppies more than them.

and that they left at night when he and his brother were in bed.

[Pirate Smile]

8. They have got to take these kids out of that home.

[teenagebambam]

9. And the puppies too

[Maru Kitteh]

12. Yes, and the puppies too.

These are people not qualified to gaurdian ANY life.

[wryter2000]

7. That's local around here

The grandmother became suspicious. (The mother of the man's late wife, who was the mother of the children.) When they couldn't find a sitter (grandma couldn't do it because she had to work), she told them, "Take the kids and make it a family trip." They told her "We're newly-weds and need time to ourselves." Selfish bastards. They left emergency phone numbers with the kids, but when the police tried calling them, no one answered! Assholes.

I'm glad they boarded the dogs, or the 9-year-old would have had to take care of them, too. You should have heard what the local news anchor had to say about the fact that they found care for the dogs but not the kids.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

10. Hope the judge throws the book at em...

[KansDem]

13. It takes a village...

We can be thankful there was a grandmother around to report this. Otherwise, there's no telling what could have happened...:scared: