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Police: Slots Players Left Children In Car While Gambling

Mother Denies Children Were In Car For Hour

POSTED: 10:10 am EDT June 2, 2008
UPDATED: 9:12 pm EDT June 2, 2008

Delaware police said they arrested a Pennsylvania couple who left their children in a car while they gambled inside the Delaware Park Race Track on Saturday.


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Police said Marisol Santos-Mingucha and her husband, Juan Mingucha, gambled for about an hour in the afternoon before authorities located them and took them into custody.

Race track security initially spotted the children, a 10-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, inside a car alone. They were taking the children to a security office when they ran into 31-year-old Santos-Mingucha.

"Initially, she advises the officer and also the security guard that she was just inside getting some ice cream for the kids and she was getting her husband, who was inside," Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said.

Her husband, 33, was still at a slot machine when authorities found him, police said.

"The surveillance, again, shows mom and dad. They're walking hand-in hand initially into the facility. It also shows dad at the slot machine pulling the handle," Whitmarsh said.

At the couple's Reading home Monday afternoon, the mother said their children were not left alone for an hour, as police claim.

"They said it was for like an hour," NBC 10's Jamison Uhler said.

"No, that's not true," Santos-Mingucha said.

The couple was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy. Both were released on $300 unsecured bond.

"Let's face it," Whitmarsh said. "When you're inside a slot machine facility and you've got those cherries and No. 7s rolling around in front of you, you can't see your kids outside."

The children were turned over to a family member Saturday but they were back at the home Monday afternoon while the Division of Family Services investigates, Uhler reported.

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