They arrested Caleb H. Carroll, 26, of the 100 block of Amy Lane, on the charge of cruelty to juveniles.
Capt. Robert Hayden says Monday morning, the postal service worker found the two-year-old child wandering the streets, and appeared to be in an unkempt condition, reporting that the child was dirty and had black marker all over him.
“He was supposed to be babysitting the child and apparently went to sleep on the couch,” Hayden said. “The two-year-old got out of the house and was walking up and down the road.”
He says the postal worker found the toddler, put him in the car with her and called the sheriff’s office.
Dep. Wade Wells, who was dispatched to the scene, says the child was in a soiled diaper that appeared not to have been changed in a while.
“He was pretty dirty and looked like he’d been unattended,” he said. “Dep. Daniel White made contact with the subject where the child belonged, he knocked on the door and the person who was supposed to be watching the child was dead asleep.”
White knocked on the door again, Wells says, and the subject, identified as Carroll, answered the door. Carroll reportedly told deputies the child was in the bed asleep. When deputies told him the child had been discovered walking the streets, he reportedly told them the back door was unlocked.
When they approached the back door, Wells says the door was unsecured, and “we couldn’t hardly latch it.”
Hayden and Wells say the charge is based on the totality of the circumstances, with the child found walking in the middle of the street unattended, and large dogs across the street from the residence.
“It could have been a bad situation,” Wells said. “I’m just glad it wasn’t any worse.”
Carroll was placed under arrest and transported to Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center.