Grandfather pays homeless woman $20 to watch granddaughter so he could go to bar

A grandfather has been arrested after paying a homeless woman $20 to look after his 7-year-old granddaughter while he got drunk at a bar for hours, police say.

The incident occurred on Monday evening at approximately 7:45 p.m. when deputies from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s North Patrol responded to the parking lot of a bar on the 5300 block of Auburn Boulevard in Sacramento, California, when, according to police, a passerby called the emergency services to reports of a 54-year-old man “asking people for help because his 7-year-old granddaughter had been kidnapped for human trafficking.”

When deputies arrived on scene, they ended up speaking with the suspect, a 54-year-old grandfather named Jason Warren who they noticed was “highly intoxicated” from the moment they made contact with him, police said.

“Deputies arrived on scene and contacted Warren, who was highly intoxicated,” according to a statement released by the police on Wednesday. “He told Deputies that he had given an unknown homeless woman $20 to take his granddaughter to a nearby thrift store while he went into the bar approximately four hours earlier. Deputies quickly obtained video surveillance footage of the woman leaving with the child.”

Sacramento County Sheriff’s North Patrol immediately dispatched a sheriff’s helicopter, unmanned drones and a sheriff’s K9 unit to assist with the urgent search for the missing 7-year-old girl.

“Approximately a half hour after the search was underway, the woman heard the PA announcements from STAR (the sheriff’s helicopter) and returned to the parking lot with the child, according to police. “The female confirmed that Warren had given her money to take the child to the thrift store. She went on to tell Deputies that Warren was highly intoxicated and she did not think he could care for the child. The female took the child to her “camp” to get food.”

Once the man’s granddaughter was found, deputies were able to speak with the child who corroborated the ordeal. The child was not in distress and was medically cleared by Fire Department personnel at the scene as a precaution, according to authorities.

“Through further investigation, deputies were able to determine that the child’s aunt had full custody of the child, but asked Warren to care for his granddaughter because she had to go to work,” police said following the incident. “Deputies conferred with Child Protective Services and determined the child was cleared to return home with her aunt.”

Warren was arrested for felony child endangerment, among several other charges, and was subsequently transported to the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he is currently being held on $75,000 bail.

The investigation is currently ongoing.