Two women are facing charges after leaving three young children unsupervised in a parking lot for hours while they went to a casino in Pickering on Monday, Durham Regional Police say.
According to police, the children, ages 10, 9, and 2, were located by casino security on the evening of April 8.
Police said security footage showed that the children had been left alone in a vehicle in the casino parking lot, near Church Street South and Highway 401, for more than four hours. Staff found the children playing on the roadway near Church Street shortly before 8 p.m., police said.
Investigators also said that the eldest child told officers that they were left alone by their mother so she could go to the casino and while they had been given a cell phone, at one point, the device died.
The parents of the children were located by police and charged under the Child Youth and Family Services Act, Durham Regional Police said in a news release published Tuesday.
Two women, ages 39 and 41, have been charged with leaving a child unattended.
Police said the Children’s Aid Society was also contacted and has launched an investigation.