Fox40
Police say the "highly intoxicated" 54-year-old man emerged from the bar four hours later, "asking people for help because his 7-year-old granddaughter had been kidnapped for human trafficking"; after his arrest, he says he wouldn't change a thing.
A Sacramento, California grandfather wound up behind bars this week after leaving his granddaughter with a total stranger before he disappeared inside a bar for four hours.
54-year-old Jason Warren (pictured) was arrested for felony child endangerment and other charges following an incident on Monday, May 6.
Per the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to parking lot of The Cinders bar around 7:45pm, after someone reported Warren "was asking people for help because his 7-year-old granddaughter had been kidnapped for human trafficking." Noting the suspect was "highly intoxicated," the sheriff's department said in a press release that Warren then told deputies 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."
The department then began a search for the girl, using a helicopter, drones and K9 units to sweep the area. The woman who had the child allegedly heard the PA announcements coming from the helicopter and returned to the bar parking lot with the girl.
"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," reads the release. "The female took the child to her 'camp' to get food. Deputies spoke 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."
The sheriff said the girl was being watched by her grandfather while her guardian, her aunt, had to work. The child is now back in her aunt's care. Warren, meanwhile, was arrested on felony child endangerment and other charges and was being held on $75,000 bail. According to records, he was released on Thursday.
Montgomery County Department of Police.
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View StoryWarren spoke with FOX 40 from behind bars, in an interview where he expressed surprise he was inside the bar for four hours.
"I could tell by her character she seemed like a decent person. I trusted her like I would trust my sister or my cousin," he told the outlet, who reminded him that "a lot of bad things could have happened" to the girl. "I thought about it the whole time, but you know, I trust God. God is not gonna lead me into a place where he can't do much," Warren replied.
Per Warren, he had car problems outside the bar and thought he could use the phone inside the get help. He said he knew he couldn't bring the girl into the bar, so he asked Jope for help. Jope also spoke with the outlet and said she took the girl to a thrift store and to get ice cream, before bringing her to her encampment so the child could meet her dog.
"I was kind of like, that's a big thing, you don't really know who I am," Jope told FOX 40. "But I knew she would be safe with me. She wasn't scared at all, seemed like maybe it's something that's happened before."
Sgt. Amar Gandhi called Jope "a guardian angel" for taking care of the girl for four hours.
"Is it my fault for leaving my granddaughter with a guardian angel?" Warren told the outlet, before he was asked whether he would do it again.
"Yes I would. I didn't do anything wrong," he replied. "Everything I did, I told God. I said, it's your will God, not my will. Let your will be done. You put this lady in my path so that I could have someone watch my granddaughter."
AP
