Man Who Reportedly Leaves Toddler Home Alone Tells Police He's 'Horrible Father'

A Johnston man charged with was charged with neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, domestic abuse and fifth-degree criminal mischief after he reportedly confronted his estranged wife about unfriending him on Facebook.

Trent Nathaniel Thomas, 31, of 6008 N.W. 49th St., was arrested after an altercation in West Des Moines, according to police reports. Before the encounter was over, his wife’s iPhone was in three pieces, she had a quarter-sized bruise on her left elbow and the Department of Human Service was summoned after Johnston police confirmed that the couple’s 2-year-old daughter had been left alone, West Des Moines Police Officer Curtis Russell wrote in his report.

During the scuffle, the victim was “yelling like a stuck pig,” Thomas reportedly told the police officer, “so he put his hand over her mouth so the neighbors wouldn’t hear.”

One neighbor of the man’s wife, who has been living in West Des Moines for about three weeks, did hear and she dialed 911. The witness reported the victim was “screaming hysterically,” that her husband was holding her to the ground and that he grabbed the iPhone and ran away.

Thomas returned, though, realizing “he was in trouble with the police,” Russell wrote. “He figured we were on the way.”

Thomas also reportedly admitted he was a “horrible father” for leaving the couple’s toddler at home alone while he drove to West Des Moines “to get answers.”

He thought he would be gone only a short while, according to the report.

Thomas was arrested and booked at the Polk County Jail.