Parents Charged After 3-Year-Old Found Wandering Alone In Parking Lot

A Maine couple has been charged after their 3-year-old boy was found wandering alone in a parking lot, police said.

Paul Mahonen Jr., 43, and Nicole Caven-Gardner, 32, of Knox town has been charged after their 3-year-old son was found unsupervised in a parking lot last month, Rockland police said in a news release Wednesday.

Mahonen Jr. was charged with Class A aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs and Caven-Gardner was charged with Class D endangering the welfare of a child. The police said that the investigation is still ongoing and more charges can be expected against the couple.

The police were dispatched to the Rockland Ferry Terminal on April 27 after they got a report of an unsupervised child in the parking lot. The police located the toddler but could not immediately identify and locate his parents.

The toddler was rushed to a hospital. The medical examination revealed that the child has been exposed to/ ingested illicit drugs, Rockland Police Chief Chris Young said in the release.

The deputies went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhood in an attempt to trace the child’s parents but were not successful.

Rockland police had also posted the photo of the child on their social media page. Based on the information they received from the social media post, the investigators found out that Mahonen Jr. and Caven-Gardner were in a nearby hotel.

The police arrested the couple and recovered large quantities of illicit drugs from their hotel room.

The couple was released on bail and is scheduled to make their initial court appearance on June 28, Pen Bay Pilot reported. Mahonen Jr. was released on personal recognizance bail and Caven-Gardner posted $250 unsecured bail, according to court documents.

A similar case was reported from Oklahoma this week. The police arrested a 22-year-old man after his twin toddlers were seen wandering in a busy street in front of their apartment. The 2-year-old girls were found wearing only diapers and carrying blankets in the rain. When the officers located the children’s house, they found that the girls’ father had passed out in the toilet. The police found two guns with him and a bag of marijuana.