Colorado parents suspected of leaving kids in their car while they ate and drank at a Florida restaurant

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (KKTV) - Two Colorado parents are facing charges after authorities say they left their three kids in a car while they went inside a Florida restaurant to eat and drink. The incident happened recently when the couple was reportedly traveling to south Florida from Colorado.

The Panama City Police Department shared some details on the case with the public on Wednesday explaining Shane Joseph O’Connor-Avion and Andrea Conklin are charged with three counts of child neglect.

“Officers with the Panama City Police Department were alerted by an off-duty Panama City Beach Police officer that three children had been left unattended in a vehicle in a restaurant parking lot in the 700 block of W. 23rd Street around 7:15 p.m.,” police wrote in a Facebook post. “Upon arrival, officers found three children, ages 2, 3 and 7, in the backseat of a vehicle in the parking lot. The vehicle was not running, and the windows were only cracked open.”

Police add first responders evaluated the kids and the 2-year-old child was “severely dehydrated.”

The parents were booked into jail while the children were placed with the Department of Children and Families as the investigation is ongoing.

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