A 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl were found alone and crying inside a Balcones Heights apartment after a bill collector showed up looking for a past-due payment and instead found the children without any adult around. Police arrested a woman, accusing her of leaving them unsupervised.
A Routine Collection Call Turns Into a Welfare Check
Officers were called to the apartment after a Rent-A-Center employee reported two unattended children inside. The employee had gone there to collect a past-due payment, and the boy told him his mother was not home. The employee said he waited 10 to 15 minutes before calling police.
An assistant property manager eventually unlocked the apartment door, and an officer found the children crying and visibly frightened, with no adult inside.
Mother Says She Was Seeking Dental Care
The children's mother told police she had been at University Hospital with tooth pain and had left both children in Soto Montezuma's care, per the arrest report cited by the station. The mother said the children did not know how to cook or call 911 and did not have access to a phone while they were left alone.
Soto Montezuma was arrested on two counts of abandoning a child with intent to return, along with a charge of illegal entry from a foreign nation, the report states. Both children were released to their mothers at the scene.
Other Unattended-Child Cases Reported in Bexar County
In late October, deputies were dispatched to a home in the 10700 block of Bushbuck Field after an 8-year-old reportedly went to a neighbor's home asking for food, with the neighbor telling deputies this was not the first time it had happened, according to a report. That account said an 11-year-old sibling had been watching the 8-year-old and a 2-year-old while their mother was at work.
Earlier in October, two women were accused of theft in west Bexar County, and one was arrested for child abandonment, according to a separate KSAT report. No further details connecting that case to the Balcones Heights incident have been reported.
