An Omaha father is facing two charges after being accused of leaving his two sons, four and five years old, alone in a car with their dog for hours while he went drinking.
The boys' father, Charles Bibb, reportedly left the boys in the car for six hours while he went to the bar and then left to stay with a woman he met there.
The four and five year old boys are okay thanks to a woman who noticed the van with its lights on and called police. The anonymous witness called police to the parking lot of the Benson Library around 6:00 Saturday morning. She told police she saw the vehicle in the parking lot around midnight running with the lights on. When it was still there in the morning, police found the boys in the car with their dog, but no parents were around.
When she first realized who was in the van, she says she cried. "My first reaction was I wish I would have called sooner but they told me there was no way I would have known that it was kids. I expected the worst for somebody to be hurt or dead."
The woman, along with police officers took care of the boys who were hungry and needed to use the restroom. She poured them both a bowl of cereal and the police took them for donuts.
At 7:15 AM Bibbs, showed up after remembering where he left his children the night before. He told police he planned on being at the bar for two hours, but ended up getting drunk and leaving with a woman he met at the bar. He spent the night with that woman and left the boys alone in the vehicle.
Police noted that he still smelled heavily of alcohol and urine which was visibly stained on the front of his pants. They also noticed fresh damage to the van he was driving and when they questioned him about whether he had driven drunk to the parking lot and caused the damage he said, "yeah but you can't pin that on me."
After being arrested, Bibbs had something to say to the woman that alerted police to the situation. "He did thank me for calling 911 and I just told him don't do it again."
There were no car seats in the van and the police had to bring car seats to the scene to transport them to CPS. The Humane Society was called to take the dog away.
Bibbs is in jail awaiting his first court appearance for two counts of Felony Child Abuse. Bibbs was jailed for his fourth DUI offense in February and was released Friday, just a few hours before leaving his children in the van.
In court on Tuesday, the judge set his bond at $75,000. He is scheduled to appear in court again on July 9th.