Police: Arizona couple arrested after abandoning son to play Pokémon Go

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last updated 3 August 2016

Police in Arizona say a couple left their toddler son home alone on a hot night with no water so they could play Pokémon Go.

Brent Daley, 27, and Brianne Daley, 25, have been charged with child neglect and endangerment, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Authorities say they received a phone call at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night from a person in San Tan Valley saying they found their neighbors' two-year-old "screaming and crying [and] attempting to get into the residence," Fox 10 Phoenix reports. When officers arrived, they found a barefoot, dirty, and red-faced toddler, who was left alone in 95-degree heat without any water.

When deputies got inside the boy's house, they found a phone number for Brent Daley. Police say when they called him to say his child had been abandoned, he allegedly answered the phone, said "Whatever," and hung up. When the Daleys arrived back home, they first claimed to have gone to get gas, but later admitted to officers they spent the previous 90 minutes driving around the area, stopping at parks and other places to play Pokémon Go. Sheriff Paul Babeu said that while his agency has warned people about being safe while playing the game, "we never would have imagined that parents would abandon a child to play Pokémon Go."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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