DOVER, Pa. — A York County man has been charged with endangering the welfare of children after police say he left three children under the age of 9 alone at home while he went holiday shopping at Target Monday night.
Tyler Welling, 31, of Dover, drove to the store on a suspended license in a vehicle with expired inspection, according to Northern York Regional Police.
The children were left alone for about an hour, police said. One of them contacted their mother on a tablet, and the mother contacted authorities, according to police.
When the officer arrived at Welling's North Queen Street home at about 6:20 p.m., two of the children answered the door. The youngest child was upset because he had soiled himself and there was no adult present to change him, according to police.
The children told the officer that Welling had left about an hour earlier, claiming he was going to have dinner with his coworkers, police said. He did not leave them anything to eat, but promised they would have dinner when he returned, according to police.
One of the children contacted their mother, who lived about two hours away. She in turn contacted the mother of one of the other children, who was closer and promised to take all three children into her custody until the other woman arrived, according to police.
When the other woman arrived, she took custody of the children, who were unharmed, according to police.
The officer attempted to contact Welling, who did not answer his phone, police said.
At about 10 p.m., Welling contacted police to report that his children were missing. The responding officer returned to his home and noted that the inspection on Welling's vehicle was expired, and that his driver's license was suspended.
Welling claimed that he had gone to Target to buy Christmas presents for his children, and that he estimated he'd been gone for about 50 minutes.
Welling is charged with three felony counts of endangering the welfare of children and three summary offenses relating to his vehicle's inspection and his suspended driver's license, police said.
