A Southern California woman accused of leaving her 4-year-old daughter home alone while she took off for a trip with friends over 120 miles away was charged with child endangerment Thursday.
Bing Chen, 28, was arrested Tuesday after neighbors found her young daughter screaming and crying at her home in Rancho Cucamonga the day before. The girl was left alone in the home hours earlier, officials said.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was alerted and immediately tried to find the girl’s parents. Unable to get in contact with Chen, who was two hours away in San Diego with friends, they called the child’s father, officials said.
He told deputies he was overseas in Taiwan on a business trip and Chen was supposed to be there taking care of their 4-year-old.
Tanner Kurete, a 9-year-old neighbor, heard the girl's screams while he was playing outside with his friends.
"We knocked on the door and she came to the front door and answered, 'Mommy, mommy,' jumping and screaming, 'Mommy, mommy. I want my mommy,'" Tanner said. "I went and told my mom."
A little more than two hours after authorities called the girl’s father, Chen arrived at the home.
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Through an interpreter, she allegedly told deputies she hadn’t arranged for anyone to look after her daughter. She also allegedly said that it was OK to leave her daughter home alone because she left food and instructions for the girl when to eat and go to bed.
She allegedly left her daughter "under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm and death, injure, cause, and permit a child, Jane Doe, to suffer and to be inflicted with unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering," court documents said.
She is scheduled to appear in the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court for an arraignment Friday.
Her daughter was placed in child protective services.
Anyone with additional information is urged to contact the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department at 909-477-2800.
