ICE Finds 3 Young Kids Home Alone In Hackettstown Apartment: Cops

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Two residents were arrested after authorities found their three children, including a 9-month-old, home alone Wednesday morning, police said.

Police assisted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with serving a warrant on Luis Froilan Ortega-Calle, 30, on the 100 block of Main Street just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, police said in a news release.

Ortega-Calle's 6-year-old daughter answered the door and authorities saw the apartment was "disheveled and unclean;" the girl had been left alone with her 3-year-old and 9-month-old sisters, police said.

While standing outside the apartment, officers saw the children's parents, Ortega-Calle and Josselyn Eneida DeLeon-Garcia, 26, come onto Main Street from a nearby alley. They took off running when they saw the police, but officers caught up with them on Sharp Street, police said.

Authorities determined Ortega-Calle and DeLeon-Garcia left their kids home alone when they went to work from 11:30 p.m. Tuesday until 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

The state Division of Child Protection and Permanency took custody of the children.

ICE officers took Ortega-Calle into custody, police said. Both he and DeLeon-Garcia were charged with three counts of second-degree child neglect.

DeLeon-Garcia was lodged in the Warren County Jail. Ortega-Calle was lodged in the Essex County Jail.

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