I'm not sure whether to commend Gabriel Espino and Marsha Castillo for not exposing their son to their life of crime or go at them with both barrels. The New Jersey couple left their 2-year-old in a motel room last week while they allegedly broke into a house in Weehawken.
When they were caught and placed under arrest, police said Espino claimed they were just trying get money together to buy diapers and formula. But when police entered the motel room, they found the 2-year-old watching television on the bed, and a pile of stolen electronics, including laptops and iPods. So far, the couple has been charged with a total of seven burglaries.
Covered in bruises, the little boy was rescued and taken into custody by the state while his parents were sent to jail on $20,000 bail. His mother is facing child endangerment charges, and his father has confessed to all seven burglaries. For the first time since they moved into the Weehawken hotel several months ago, the family at least has stable housing - albeit split up and all paid for by the state. The fact that the family was living in a motel makes Espino's claims of needing money to buy formual and diapers believable - they were, for all intents and purposes, homeless. One police report even says Espino, 22, had recently lost his job and worried about how to pay the motel bill.
Not that any of it gives a set of parents the right to leave a toddler unsupervised. For a little little boy, locked in a motel room, I can think of dozens of dangers just off the top of my head - from knocking the TV over onto himself to turning on the tub and an accidental drowning. What's more, the sheer terror for a toddler to be left alone without Mommy and Daddy gives me chills.
I'm not giving them a break for turning to crime either. If you can't feed your kid, you take it on the chin and beg, borrow . . . do anything short of stealing. In the words of Mr. Hand, stealing is bad, MmmKay?
But there's a little part of me that feels sorry for a mom and dad living in a flea bag motel (according to reports, the kid was covered in bed bug bites) who probably couldn't afford a babysitter even if they'd thought to call on one while they went off on their admittedly bad, bad errand. In this economy, I'm surprised there aren't more parents like Espino and Carillo just doing what they have to to pay the bills.
Image: Journal News
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