San Ysidro

Police are searching for the father of a 10-year-old boy found sleeping in a car in San Ysidro early Wednesday morning.

Mario Javier Renteria of Tijuana may have been abandoned or just left to wait for his father, San Diego police said at a noon press conference.

“Either the father is lost, doesn’t know where to pick him up, or thinks the child is still waiting,” said Lt. Gregg Clark, a police spokesman.

The boy told police he, his father and a man he did not know crossed the border around midnight in a station wagon. Police said the car had been stolen Tuesday in Long Beach.

The boy’s father and the other man drove to a parking lot in the 100 block of East Park Avenue, the boy told police. The youth said his father told him he had to “take care of some business” and would return for him, police said.

A neighbor noticed the car about 3 a.m. and found the boy asleep inside. She called police at 7 a.m. after waiting with the boy for the men to return, said Officer Elsa Castillo, who responded to the call.

Castillo said Mario, who speaks only Spanish, told her that his father, also named Mario, was in his mid-30s, and that his mother had left several days ago for Mexico City to have a baby.

Mario, who lived in the community of Colonia Senador Monson in Tijuana, said he was an only child, Castillo said.

The boy has been placed in the Hillcrest Receiving Home until his parents can be contacted, police said.

Police said they have no plans to press charges against the father.