A seven-year-old British girl and her one-year-old sister were found abandoned inside a parked car in Tenerife on June 17th.
The alarming discovery was made by a concerned resident who noticed the white Volkswagen Polo rental vehicle sitting in the sun with closed windows.
After waiting for 15 minutes without any sign of the children’s parents, authorities were alerted, prompting a response from police at the Apolo Commercial Centre in Los Cristianos.
According to information from a policing blog post cited by local news outlets, officers managed to persuade the seven-year-old to unlock the car door, where they found provisions such as yoghurts and juices, alongside documentation identifying a man believed to be the girls’ father.
A search throughout the shopping centre led police to a 38-year-old British man at a hair salon, who initially denied being the father and provided a false name different from the one authorities sought. Despite efforts to locate the parents, police were unable to find them, leading to a decision by the local prosecutor’s office to transfer the girls to a nearby maternal unit.
Subsequent investigation, supported by the car rental company, eventually confirmed that the man at the salon was indeed the children’s father and had misled authorities about his identity. However, upon returning to the salon to apprehend him, officers discovered that he had fled shortly after their initial encounter.
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In a peculiar turn of events, a 35-year-old Polish man appeared at the scene, claiming to be a friend of the person responsible for the girls. He asserted that he had been asked to collect them, though police refused to release the children until the parents were fully identified.
Ultimately, authorities successfully traced and contacted the girls’ mother, a 27-year-old British tourist, who promptly arrived at the shopping centre. Upon verifying her identity, police handed over custody of the children to her.
According to reports from Canarian Weekly, police have initiated legal proceedings and are actively seeking the arrest of the girl’s father on suspicion of child abandonment as investigations into the incident continue.
