A dad of three was beaten up after he left his kids in the car so he could go drinking.
28-year-old Joshua Delong left his three children aged 5, 7 and 8 in his car while he drank beer at a bar in Ocala, Florida in the US.
Heather Weiss spotted the children in the car parked near the bar, at around 2am, saying they were hoking the car horn and calling for their daddy.
The woman said one of the children told her, 'Daddy left us here for a long time, and he does it a lot.'
"I don't know why anyone would put any child in that situation," said Heather. "It was pretty scary. You see they're tired, they're sweaty, you want to do the right thing and get them out of the situation."
The children told police that they ate dinner with their father and grandmother, and wanted to go home with their dad, who instead drove to the bar and left them alone for around four hours with the windows up and the keys in the ignition.
Heather's boyfriend, a bouncer at the bar Delong was drinking at, said the man attempted to drive off, but the security team stopped him because they thought he was drunk.
An onlooker, who was angry about the incident, then hit Delong.
However, Delong told police that several men had dragged him out of the bar and beat him after learning he had left his children in the car alone.
Delong said his wife dropped the kids off in the car while he was at the bar, but she denied that claim, saying he had had custody of the children for the last five days.
Delong was arrested and charged with three counts of child neglect.
