For more than 30 minutes, a 6-year-old boy was alone in the car while his father and his girlfriend finished dinner in an Alpharetta restaurant, according to a police report released Monday.
Scared and sobbing, the boy called his mom to say he was alone inside his father’s car in an unfamiliar parking lot, the report states. The boy’s mother called 911, and a dispatcher in turn called the boy, who wasn’t injured. While the boy was on the phone, his father returned to the car, according to police.
The dispatcher called back the boy’s father, Aric Keck, but Keck allegedly hung up the first time before telling the dispatcher he only left the child alone to go to the restroom, the police report states. Keck then allegedly called his ex-wife and threatened to kill her for calling the police as his girlfriend and son listened, according to police.
The boy, who was with his father during visitation, had been in the restaurant on July 18 with Keck and Jacqueline Tabb. When he got tired, the two walked him back to the car, parked more than a block away, according to police.
“Mom, we’re at the Tona Grill,” the boy told his mom.
The restaurant was later determined to be the Kona Grill on Avalon Boulevard in Alpharetta. And thanks to the boy’s ability to tell his mom the names of streets where the car had been parked, investigators were able to piece together what happened with help from surveillance cameras in the area.
At 9:32 p.m., Tabb is seen on restaurant video leading the boy out of the restaurant, police said. The couple then returns to the restaurant minutes later and remains there until 10:15 p.m., according to police.
Police charged both Keck, 51, and Tabb, 26, with reckless conduct, and both surrendered Aug. 10.
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