An American woman has been arrested and charged with child endangerment after she left four children home alone unsupervised while she went abroad.
Erin Lee Macke, of Johnston, Iowa, departed for Germany on September 20, leaving her four children, a six-year-old, a seven-year-old and two 12-year-olds completely unsupervised. She did not intend to return until October 1.
Thankfully, the father of one of the children alerted the police who called to Erin’s house the next day and found the children alone. They had been by themselves for 24 hours.
When police contacted Erin, she allegedly informed them that she had no problem with what she had done. The officers demanded that she fly home and she was arrested on her return.
Erin Lee Macke, 30, left her four children home alone while she went on a 12-day trip to Germany. https://t.co/NYjNGCKrjP
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 29, 2017
She has since been charged with four counts of child endangerment and one count of making a firearm available to a person under 21.
She is now in jail awaiting her first court appearance. The 30-year-old mother is under a no-contact order, which means she is not allowed see the children.
Local police lieutenant Tyler Tompkins told KCCI: “I’ve never heard of anything like this before.
“We have situations where parents go next door or parents may go out for the night, and while that’s not advisable either depending on the age of the children, obviously leaving the country is a totally different situation.
“This, where a parent has left the country and left the kids home alone, I’ve never heard of it before".
Police: Woman leaves 4 kids at home, goes on European vacation https://t.co/CRzfIeRYQb pic.twitter.com/apnDsSFKlD
— KCCI News (@KCCINews) September 29, 2017
Macke told police that all her babysitting options had fallen through so she left her 12-year-old twins in charge.
“They were concerned, they didn’t know, they were confused,” Lt Tompkins said of the youngsters. “I mean, we’re only talking about 12-year-olds being the adults here”.
The children were taken into the care of Iowa Department of Human Services but have since been released to other family members.
