According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, a grandfather was taken into custody on Sunday for reportedly paying a homeless woman $20 to look after his granddaughter while he went to a bar nearby.
FOX40.com interviewed the homeless woman on Tuesday, who the sheriff’s office has referred to as a “guardian angel.”
“I was like, ‘Okay that’s a big thing… you don’t know who I am,’ but I knew that she would be safe with me,” Lauren Jope told FOX40. This situation reportedly went down when authorities began to receive calls about a man who was around asking people for help to find his granddaughter who had allegedly been abducted. Upon meeting with Jason Warren, deputies found him to be “highly intoxicated” and he allegedly informed them that he had given $20 to a homeless woman to take his granddaughter to a nearby thrift store.
“She was about 28 to 30 years old,” Warren said to FOX40.com. “I knew, I could tell by her character that she seemed like a decent person. I trusted her like I would trust my sister or my cousin.”
Following the exchange of money, the man proceeded to enter a bar where he remained for approximately four hours. The sheriff’s office utilized a helicopter, unmanned aerial systems, and K9 units in their search for the woman and the child. Upon hearing the announcements made via the helicopter’s PA system, the woman returned with the girl to the parking lot. She disclosed that the man had provided her with money to take his granddaughter to a nearby thrift store.
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“She wasn’t scared at all and it seemed like maybe something that had maybe happened before,” Jope said.
The girl confirmed the woman’s account, and as a precautionary measure, she received a medical evaluation from the Sacramento Fire Department. The man was taken into custody and is charged with felony child endangerment and additional offenses. He is being held on a $75,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
When asked by FOX40.com if he would do this again, Warren said, “Yes I would. I didn’t do anything wrong. Everything I did I told God about and I said, ‘It’s your will God, not my will. Let your will be done.’”