A Florida man was arrested on child neglect charges after he shoved his 10-year-old daughter out of his car and drove off overnight Tuesday.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said that Hector Serrano Jr., 30, was driving with his daughter just after midnight in Kissimmee when he got into an argument with the girl’s grandparents, where he was supposed to be taking her, WESH reported. He stopped in the middle of Highway 192, Lopez said, where he was seen by witnesses pushing the young girl and her clothes and toys out of the car and leaving the scene. The witnesses immediately called 911.
“If anybody’s familiar with that area in Kissimmee, it’s a very heavily traveled roadway,” Lopez told WOFL. “Very touristy, pretty dangerous. We get a lot of pedestrians hit by vehicles in that area.”
Lopez said the little girl’s grandparents had been threatening to call police if Serrano didn’t drop the girl off there.
“So he basically said, ‘You know what? Get out and walk to your grandparents’ house,’” Lopez said.
The grandparents house was about a 20 minute walk from where Serrano dumped his daughter and sped away.
“She was distraught at the time. She was crying, she was confused. She’s a 10-year-old little girl. It’s after midnight hours and it’s dark,” Lopez said.
Deputies took the girl to her grandparents’ home.
The sheriff said he hoped that Serrano gets therapy while he’s in jail, but with only a $5,000 bond, that wasn’t long. He’s no longer listed as an inmate.
