Mother Who Kept Child in Car Held

A Bay Area single mother was in jail Tuesday for allegedly locking her 5-year-old son in the trunk of her car because she apparently could not find child care, authorities said.

Rosemarie Randovan was arrested early Monday at her San Jose home after a co-worker reported to police that he heard moans coming from the trunk of the 30-year-old woman’s car, said San Jose police spokesman Rubens Dalaison.

The man reportedly went riding in Randovan’s car Sunday night as the two took a dinner break from their graveyard shift jobs at a Santa Clara electronics company.

“He hears these creepy little moans coming from the trunk of the car and he asks her ‘Hey, what was that?’ ” Dalaison said. “She just got real nervous and turned up the radio and started talking louder and ignoring what he was saying. But he kept hearing the moaning coming from the trunk.”

When he returned to work, the man consulted several colleagues and then called police.

Investigators Tuesday spoke with Randovan’s two sons, ages 5 and 7, and were told that their mother routinely took them to work and left them in the trunk while she completed her overnight shift.

Dalaison said the older boy was reportedly left with a sitter and police believe the younger boy was in the trunk Sunday night. “Both said they’d been in that trunk at various times,” he said. “They said that it had been happening for four months.”

Both boys have been placed with child protective services, Dalaison said.

Randovan has been charged with one count of child endangerment and was being held Tuesday night in the Santa Clara County jail on $30,000 bond. She was scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon.

Several witnesses told investigators that Randovan had recently started the night shift and was having trouble finding a baby-sitter.

“Is this the desperate measure of a worried mother or just one big lack of thought, who knows?” said Dalaison. “I do know one thing: Most people wouldn’t even put their dog through an experience like that.”

Rose Ferraro, who has rented a room in her home to Randovan and her two sons for the last four years, said the woman seemed like a responsible mother who recently was under increasing stress.

“She’s a nice lady, I’ve always treated her as my younger sister, but she never mentioned to me she had any problems,” Ferraro said. “But I knew she recently lost her day job and had to take the graveyard thing.”

Ferraro said Randovan had been out of work for several weeks before starting her job at the electronics company.

“This just surprises me,” she said. “I always told her, ‘You have to love your children. They’re angels.’ I just wish she would have come to me.”