Charleston, South Carolina, police arrested a 35-year-old father Friday after he left his 6-year-old daughter asleep outside a Target store overnight, using a pillow and blanket to hold his place in line for a new Pokémon trading card release, according to the Charleston Police Department.
Officers went to the store in the West Ashley neighborhood at around 2:30 a.m. after a report of an unattended child, the department said in a news release. They found the girl alone. The father, identified by police as John-Michael Dooley of Johns Island, had left the scene.
Customers told officers that Dooley had handed the girl a pillow and blanket sometime after 1 a.m. and then walked away. When an hour passed without his return, concerned people waiting in line called police, according to the release. Dooley later came back to the store, and witnesses pointed him out to officers, who arrested him.
Police say he admitted going home while the girl waited
Dooley acknowledged to police that he had left his daughter unattended so he could keep his place in line, and said he had gone home in the meantime, the department said. He was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child and is being held at the Al Cannon Detention Center. Dooley could not immediately be reached for comment.
The child was not harmed and was placed in emergency protective custody with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, according to police.
The draw: a new Pokémon expansion
The line was forming for the Friday sale of the latest Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion, Mega Evolution — Delta Reign. The decades-old Japanese franchise, which began as a children’s video game, centers on fictional creatures that players collect, train and battle. Packs start at around $5.
The release does not say whether Dooley intended to buy the cards for himself or his daughter.
