A Long Island couple have been busted for leaving their 21/2-year-old son home alone for more than 10 hours with three bottles of milk and sugar cookies while they went to work, Nassau County cops said yesterday.
Consuelo Orellana, 32, and her husband, José Blanco, 30, were arrested at 7 p.m. Monday after cops went to their New Cassell home and found the toddler in the first-floor bedroom, police said.
Cops who arrived at the unlocked apartment after receiving an anonymous tip said the boy was “sitting on the bed” and that there were unrefrigerated milk bottles, some of them empty, said Nassau County Detective Lt. Arthur McLoughlin.
At the couple’s arraignment yesterday on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child, Orellana’s Legal Aid lawyer said a baby sitter was supposed to be with the child.
Police declined comment on a report they were investigating whether there was an unlicensed day-care center operating in another part of the multiple-dwelling building. The landlord also refused comment.
The couple also have a child hospitalized with asthma, officials said.
Orellana, a maid, left home for work at 7 a.m. Monday, and her husband, who works in construction, left at 8 a.m., McLoughlin said. Cops got the tip at 6:15 p.m. The tot, four months shy of his third birthday, was taken to a local hospital and found to be in good health. He was placed in foster care.