Man Arrested For Leaving Son In Car

Sun., May 7, 2000

A man was arrested after his young son was left in a car for an hour and a half early Saturday morning.

Spokane police received a call at 3 a.m. to the 600 block of South Perry. A neighbor said he’d found a 2-year-old boy abandoned in a nearby parking lot. The child was cold, hungry and frightened, according to the police report.

Officers went door to door trying to locate the parents. About the time they were going to turn the boy over to Child Protective Services, the boy’s father called.

Officers contacted 34-year-old Ward J. Eastman at his home at 1629 E. Ostrander. The child’s mother was also there. She told officers Eastman was supposed to be caring for the child while she was at work, according to police.

Eastman told police he had taken the boy with him to a friend’s apartment and had left him sleeping in the car. He told police he thought he’d only been gone 10 minutes but was actually gone an hour and a half.

Eastman was booked into jail on criminal mistreatment second degree, a felony.

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