Dad Donald Crawford Loses Kid, Truck at Indiana Strip Club
INDIANAPOLIS (Nov. 25) -- A man was arrested after police said he left his 5-year-old son in a tractor-trailer while he ducked into an Indianapolis strip club to drink.
Donald Crawford, 39, was arrested at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after he called police to report his truck stolen and his child missing. Police said the man was too drunk to remember where he had parked.
Local television stations obtained audio recordings of a 911 call where the caller identifies himself as Crawford. A WISH broadcast also showed his truck.
WTHR published part of the transcript.
"I need to report a stolen vehicle and a lost child," a man says.
"Where's the child? You don't know who took him?" asks the emergency operator.
"He was in the vehicle when it was tooken," the man says.
The man on the phone says that his 5-year-old is in the truck, and tries to explain where he left the vehicle. The operator asks him where he went -- a business?
"No, I was at whatever this strip club is."
"And you left your son in the truck to wait for you?," the operator asks.
"He was sleeping."
"What's your name, sir?"
"Don Crawford."
Police found the boy watching cartoons on a television inside the cab; the semi was right where the man had reported parking it. The keys were in the ignition, and the doors were unlocked.
Police said the suspect put his son in jeopardy by leaving him exposed in a high crime area.
Crawford was taken to the Marion County jail, where his wife picked up him and the child.
And we wonder why truck drivers have a bad reputation!
