Texas parents allegedly left 6 kids home alone to play video games at laundromat

TEXARKANA, Texas (TCD) -- A 28-year-old man and 23-year-old woman were arrested last week after allegedly leaving their six children home alone while they played video games at a nearby laundromat.

According to a press release from the Texarkana Texas Police Department, on Monday, Jan. 24, police received a report of abandoned children crying in a house and screaming for their mother. Police say officers responded to the residence and found six kids alone in the home, ranging in age from 11 months to 7 years.

According to police, children told officers that their parents left them to go to a nearby laundromat. Police do not know the exact duration they’d been left alone, but the children were brought a package of hot dogs, and police say one of the children needed help opening the package "because he was hungry."

According to police, the mother, Marca Harris, and the children’s stepfather, Eshaun Johnson, were found in the laundromat with several others playing a video game. Police say Johnson agreed to walk back to their house when asked, but Harris "indicated that she was much too busy playing her game to leave to go check on her babies at that moment."

According to police, Johnson and Harris were arrested and charged for abandoning or endangering a child. They were booked into the Bi-State Jail with bond set at $75,000 each. Child Protective Services was reportedly alerted about the incident, and the children were released into the custody of a relative.

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