A West Des Moines man was arrested Friday after his toddler allegedly left the residence alone while the man was asleep.
Eric Jonathon Gerver, 32, of 1229 65th Place, West Des Moines, was charged with child endangerment.
The incident began about 5 p.m. Friday in the 6500 block of Center Street in West Des Moines, where officers of the West Des Moines Police Department responded to a report of “a small child about the ages of 2 or 3 years old walking down the roadway, wearing only a shirt and diapers,” according to court records.
Officers arrived on scene and began to seek the child’s parents but “were unsuccessful after three hours of searching,” according to court records. The Iowa Department of Human Services responded and “took custody of the child for emergency placement for the evening.”
The child’s mother contacted law enforcement about 9 p.m. and said that “her son was missing,” according to court records. The mother told the officers that she was at work and the child was under the care of Gerver.
The mother told the officers that the child’s grandparents arrived at the residence on 65th Place shortly before 9 p.m. and found Gerver allegedly “passed out on the couch, intoxicated,” according to court records.
The grandparents searched the home and contacted the mother when they did not locate the toddler.
Officers eventually made contact with Gerver at the residence. Gerver told the officers that he “believed his son was upstairs sleeping,” according to court records.
The officers allegedly observed Gerver “to have an odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting
from his person and had blood-shot watery eyes,” according to court records.
Gerver was held in the Dallas County Jail in advance of an initial appearance in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
