Dad Jailed After 3 Kids Found in Locked Auto

An Anaheim father was arrested on felony child-endangerment charges Monday after police said he left his three young daughters in a hot, locked car for at least half an hour. The girls escaped serious injury.

Geoffrey Chiedozie Onyekwere, 36, was being held at Cypress City Jail pending payment of $10,000 bail after police found the girls--ages 4, 3 and 3 months--locked in a car in the parking lot of Cypress College. The temperature outside was 85 degrees, police said.

“They were sweating, scared and hot,” said Lt. Jeff Kepley of the Cypress Police Department. “They were obviously in the first stages of dehydration. We believe they were in the car between 30 and 45 minutes.”

Police arrived at 12:40 p.m., Kepley said, after being called by campus security guards who had discovered the girls locked in the car with the front windows rolled down about 3 inches.

Officers did not resort to breaking into the car, Kepley said, but reached in to unlock a door or persuaded the girls to open one. Paramedics determined that the children did not need hospitalization.

While paramedics were evaluating the girls, Kepley said, their father returned, explaining that he had been conducting business on campus. “We believe he may be a student or prospective student,” the officer said.

“The kids are going to be fine, but we’re trying to get the message out,” Kepley said. “We were lucky on this one, but it was a very dangerous situation--the kids could have died.”

All three girls were taken into protective custody by the Police Department pending transfer to Orange County Child Protective Services, Kepley said. Police were unable to contact the children’s mother, and Onyekwere was uncooperative in helping find other family members, he said.