A couple from Northlake were ordered held on $50,000 bail each after police found two of their children, ages 5 and 7, bound hand and foot and blindfolded in a Walmart parking lot in Lawrence, Kan., authorities say.
Adolfo and Deborah Gomez were ordered not to have contact with each other or any of their children, according to prosecutors.
Police found a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl sitting outside the family’s older gray Chevrolet Suburban, blindfolded and bound at the hands and feet, after a woman called 911 Wednesday morning.
“We’re very fortunate that she saw this, because it didn’t occur in the middle of the parking lot,” said Lawrence Police Sgt. Trent McKinley.
The SUV – which apparently had transmission problems -- was parked in the far corner of the lot, and the view of the children was further shielded by a earthen berm and a retaining wall.
“I don’t know if the witness was going to the garden center, which is on the west side of the store, or using a little-used exit, but she was in a position to see quite a bit more than the average person coming into the parking lot would have seen.
"And she saw what she believed to be a child that was bound. So when we responded to that, often times in this job usually what you’re given is not what’s occurring. That kind of happened here – what we actually found were two children that were bound outside the vehicle.”
McKinley said three other children -- 12- and 13-year-old girls and a 15-year-old boy -- locked themselves inside the SUV, which had clothing, cardboard and other items stacked across the windows and blocking any view inside.
Police did not try to force their way into the SUV, but rather called juvenile officers who helped talk the children into coming out on their own about an hour later, McKinley said.
Gomez, 52, was detained by officers when he returned to the Suburban and was Tasered when he tried to break free and enter the SUV, McKinley said. His wife, 43, was arrested inside the store about 10 minutes later.
The two children who were bound were examined at the scene, and McKinley said there were no injuries found on them.
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