ORLANDO, Fla. – A man was arrested on suspicion of leaving his 7-year-old daughter alone in a car outside an Orlando strip club.
Elliut Gonzalez, 38, was arrested early Wednesday on child neglect charges and walked out of jail late Wednesday night.
Gonzalez said nothing to Local 6 cameras as he left jail.
According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, a 911 call alerted deputies to the situation and they found the girl alone and asleep in a locked car outside the Diamond Club off Semoran Boulevard in Orlando.
"My reaction immediately was what kind of person would do this kind of thing, they got to be somebody really irresponsible," the man who spotted the girl in the car told Local 6, but didn't want to be identified. "We don't know what time he was thinking to leave that place, we don't know how drunk he might be at that time, it was a real danger for her."
Deputies located Gonzalez and he said he went to the club to get a drink after getting into an argument with his girlfriend.
Video from a nearby business caught Orange County deputies confronting the father as he walked out of the bar. For nearly, 25 minutes, deputies looked in nearby cars looking for the dad.
After running the car's tag, he was paged next door.
"My main question was why this girl is here instead of being at her home?" asked the man who found the girl. "She's alive, she is with the person that's going to be taking care of her and that's the most important part."
The girl, who was in the car for nearly an hour, was not harmed, deputies said. The Department of Children and Families said the child was released to a "loved one" upon her father's arrest.
The father has full custody of the girl and was described by DCF as being remorseful. DCF said the girl didn't realize she was at a strip club and was asleep the whole time.
Local 6 plans to ask him why he left his child in the car for an hour, and if he has done it before.
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