A man is accused of leaving his 6-year-old daughter in a car while he gambled at a casino, police said.

The girl was found crying in the parking garage Sunday by a Hollywood Casino worker, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The girl said she'd been left in the middle of the night in a van with windows covered by cardboard and duct tape. The vehicle was located on the same floor of the garage where the girl was found, police said.

Police found the girl's father, Charles A. Carter Jr., 46, gambling inside the casino. Carter was charged with child endangerment.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

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