Toddler Left Alone In Middle Of Road For An Hour; West Virginia Man Arrested

A West Virginia man has been charged after a 3-year-old girl who was in his care was spotted unsupervised in the middle of a road.

Joel Dones, 27, was charged Saturday with child neglect for creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury, CBS-affiliated television station WDTV reported.

Officers from the Clarksburg Police Department arrived at Laurel Lanes on May 23 for a welfare check after receiving a 911 call about an unsupervised child. They saw a man at a bus stop in front of Laurel Lanes. He had with him a 3-year-old girl wearing just a diaper, a criminal complaint said.

The man told officers that he had seen a woman walking with the baby and he "stopped and asked the female if everything was okay." When he came to know that the woman was looking for the toddler's parents, he dialed 911, the complaint read.

About 20 minutes later, Dones reached the spot and identified himself as the caretaker of the child. Officers confirmed that the baby was missing from Dones' care for approximately one hour.

As part of the investigation, officers on Friday met with the woman who first spotted the baby. She told police that she found the baby in the middle of the road and decided to walk up toward Richard Avenue because the child kept pointing in that direction. She then met the man who originally called 911, the complaint read.

Dones is currently out on bond and his relation with the child is not clear.

Last month, a 22-year-old man was arrested after his twin children were found wandering outside an apartment wearing only diapers. The 2-year-old girls were spotted by a passerby who called the police. When the officers went to the girls' apartment, they found their father passed out on the toilet. He had two guns with him and a bag of marijuana.