An Atlanta man discovered a shocking consequence to leaving your two kids alone in a running car in a parking lot: Your car gets stolen and you get arrested.
On Sunday at around 6:15 p.m., Charles Boyd allegedly left his two children in his idling Cadillac while he stopped for ice at a Star Discount Food Market in Atlanta. While he was in the shop, an unidentified man reportedly stole the vehicle -- driving off with the kids in tow.
The incident, captured on a surveillance camera, shows Boyd -- in a white shirt -- entering the store, leaving his car just in front of the entrance.
Some time later, a man dressed in a red shirt walks up to the store front, looks inside to see if anyone is watching, and then opens the car door and drives off.
In the footage, one can not see the two children -- a 5-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy -- inside the car.
The thief later abandoned the vehicle near a home, at which point the children let themselves out, WSBTV reports. The two kids were found by a neighbor.
The police found the car about two hours after the theft, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Police said that Boyd's first phone call was to his wife, not to the cops. A store clerk called 911 about the incident, according to FOX-5 Atlanta.
Authorities also say that Boyd did not initially tell them that his children were in the car when it was stolen. Boyd disputes this claim, and was backed up by fellow customer Tabitha Robinson. "He was hysterical; he couldn't believe someone had jumped in the car with his kids," she said.
The Georgian was arrested with reckless conduct and had a court hearing on Monday. In the proceedings, Boyd's attorney told the court that his client made a "bad judgment call…to leave the kids sitting there while he went in, but he did see the security guard present, and felt like it was a safe environment to leave the children," according to FOX.
Boyd was also initially charged with possession of marijuana after police found nine baggies of pot in the stolen vehicle. The drug charge was dropped after a judge ruled that it was plausible that the marijuana belonged to the thief who had allegedly been in the car for two hours.
Boyd is currently being held in Fulton County Jail on a $16,000 bond.
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