A California man has been arrested after allegedly paying a homeless woman $20 to watch his 7-year-old granddaughter while he was drunk at a bar, police said.
A passerby alerted the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department about 54-year-old Jason Warren, who was calling for help from strangers claiming his grandson had been kidnapped for human trafficking around 7:45 Monday night. .
When officers arrived, they found Warren “heavily intoxicated.” According to the police. He said that four hours earlier, while he was drinking at a bar, he gave a homeless woman he didn’t know $20 to go to the thrift store.
The homeless woman, whom the sheriff’s office calls a “guardian angel,” said she was confused but knew the girl was in her care.
“I thought, ‘Okay, that’s a big deal…you don’t know who I am,’ but I knew she was safe with me,” Lauren Jope told FOX40.com.
The sheriff’s office deployed a K9, helicopter and drone unit to track the girl. About 30 minutes later, Joep heard an announcement on the PA system and returned to the parking lot.
Jope admitted that Warren paid her $20 to go to the thrift store with the girl. She said she did not feel able to care for her granddaughter due to her inebriated state and took the girl to her “camp” to get food for her. .
The girl was not in any pain or injured, corroborating Jope’s account.
Warren was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment and held in the Sacramento County Main Jail on $75,000 bail.
When asked if he would do it again, Warren said, “Yes, I would.”
“I have done nothing wrong. I told God everything I had done and said, ‘It is not my will, but His will.’ “Let your will be done,” he said.
Her aunt has full custody of the girl, but she had to work that day and asked Warren to watch over her.
Warren told FOX40 that although she didn’t know the homeless woman, she had full confidence that Jope would be able to take care of her granddaughter.
“She was about 28 to 30 years old,” Warren told the outlet from prison. “I knew, from her personality, that she seemed like a decent person. I trusted her the same way I would trust her sister or cousin.”
