Children From Daycare Found Alone, Crying at Manchester Store

MANCHESTER, CT — A Coventry couple is accused of leaving children from the woman's daycare facility crying and alone in a parked car in the BJ's Wholesale parking lot while they shopped, police said.

Police were called by a store employee at about 11 a.m. Tuesday after another employee noticed the children, according to a report. The store is located at at 1046 Tolland Turnpike.

As Officers arrived, a couple was exiting the store and walking to the vehicle in question, a report indicates.

Inside the vehicle were a pair of 2-year-old girls and a 4-year-old girl, police said.

The man and woman said that they had "just gone into the store for about five minutes" and "didn’t realize that they couldn’t leave the children unattended in a vehicle for a short period of time given the fact that they had left their windows cracked," a report indicates.

They also stated that the children were from the woman's daycare business.

Police determined the children had been left in the vehicle for approximately half-hour.

The couple was identified ad Beth Rich, 53, and Mark Babcock, 51, both of 29 Forge Road, Coventry. They were both charged with three counts of leaving children younger than 12 unsupervised.

Both were released on a $2,500 non-surety bond and were both given a court date of May 15, police said.

The children were all unharmed and turned over to the custody of their parents or guardians, according to a report.

Photo Credit: MPD