Daycare Provider Leaves 2 Kids in Towed SUV
Tanya F. Robinson, 40, was charged Dec. 19, 2014, with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child after she left two small children in her locked SUV that was towed while she shopped.
NEWARK, Del. — An unlicensed daycare provider was arrested after taking two children in her care with her to a shopping center and leaving them unattended in her locked SUV that was towed while she shopped, police said Monday.
Tanya F. Robinson, 40, was charged Friday with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, said Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale.
The incident unfolded about 12:20 p.m. at the BJ’s Wholesale Club in the Pencader Plaza Shopping Center in Newark, where two children had been left in a vehicle that had been repossessed and towed away.
According to police, the tow truck driver called them after towing the 2007 Dodge Aspen. He heard children’s voices inside the vehicle after reaching the towing yard, Hale said.
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The 32-year-old driver told police that he didn’t see anyone inside the SUV before he towed it because the windows were tinted.
Inside, the driver found a 5-year-old girl and a 23 1/2 month old toddler and called police.
Robinson, meanwhile, telephoned state police after finding her vehicle missing.
Troopers went to Pencader Plaza and arrested her.
Hale said the two abandoned children were not injured and were turned over to a second daycare provider who took them back to the daycare and turned them over to their parents.
Erin Winthrup, who lives two doors away from the daycare, said the first she learned that something had happened was about 3:30 p.m. Friday when her husband got a call from state police.
Robinson’s sister had brought their 5-year-old daughter McKenna to the house an hour earlier saying only that Robinson’s vehicle got towed. Winthrup said she usually picks her daughter up about 4:30 p.m.
“I was pretty surprised when the police called,” an upset Winthrup said Monday. “I wasn’t at first processing it at all. I thought the kids were in the store with her and didn’t know she had left them unattended. She parked the car in a tow-away zone, locked the car and went inside BJ’s.”
Robinson was later released on $4,000 unsecured bail.
