LONGVIEW — Two Woodland parents were arrested after they allegedly left their 11-month old child in the back seat of a vehicle unattended in 80-degree weather while they went into a local restaurant to eat.
Dylan Daniel Wenger, 22, and Megan Elizabeth Wenger, 23, were arrested Friday and charged with reckless endangerment and leaving a child in a vehicle unattended at a liquor establishment. They each posted $1,000 bail and will be arraigned June 6 in Cowlitz County District Court.
Around 7:45 p.m. Friday, Woodland police responded to the report of a child who had been left unattended in a vehicle at Casa Tapatia Mexican Restaurant, 1175 Lewis River Road. The 911 caller led the officer to the vehicle, according to police records.
Three windows were rolled down and the toddler was sitting in the back in a car seat. The woman who reported the call, a registered nurse, told the officer she and her husband had come to the restaurant for dinner and saw the child when they were leaving, according to police records. The woman said she saw the parents get out of the vehicle and go inside the restaurant.
Out of concern for the child’s safety, the woman and her husband waited near the vehicle for the parents to return. At the time, it was about 80 degrees outside. The woman went back into the restaurant and saw the parents seated at a booth near the back, out of sight of the vehicle. The woman then told officers she waited about 45 minutes for the parents before calling police, according to police records.
When the officer began entering the restaurant, a male subject, who was later identified as Dylan Wenger, stepped outside. Wenger was asked if he was the owner of the vehicle and was placed under arrest. Wenger told the officer that he had been checking on the toddler every five minutes and “had left the child in the pickup because he was sleeping and that if he doesn’t get enough sleep, he gets cranky,” according to police records.
The officer also noted that Wenger had been drinking at the restaurant, which serves beer, wine and hard liquor. Megan Wenger was also arrested.
When the 11-month-old was removed from the vehicle, he was damp with sweat and needed a new diaper. The officer noted that “he was obviously overheated,” and “had no ability to access fluids to hydrate himself,” and “if he would have suffered a medical problem, there was no one to take care of him,” according to police records.
The officer said that the parents didn’t have a view of the vehicle or child and that they would not have been able to see if “someone would have abducted or harmed him and (they) would have had easy access to him due to the windows being down and the vehicle being unlocked,” according to police records.
The officer also found a mostly consumed bottle of vodka in the vehicle.
The child was turned over to his grandmother and the police report will be forwarded to Child Protective Services for follow-up.
