A Florida couple is facing charges after allegedly booting a child out of their car on the side of Interstate 75 near North Port, Sarasota County, leaving him with a bag containing two handguns and a sum of cash. The pair reportedly told the boy to “take care of the house” before driving away.
Bradley Leon Guerrero Santos, 36, and Rosanella Mendiola Borja, 35, were arrested approximately four hours after the incident, which occurred just before 6 p.m. on October 3.
According to WWSB, police were called about a boy walking along the highway, about 35 miles south of Sarasota. The child told officers he had been traveling in a car with the couple and a sibling. Authorities have not disclosed the relationship between the boy and the adults.
The affidavit states that when the boy returned home from school that day, the couple announced they were taking a trip “either to Guam or Idaho.” Upon returning from walking the dog, the child found the pair “frantically throwing clothes into duffel bags.”
As they drove onto the interstate, the boy reportedly told the couple he did not want to go on the trip. They then pulled over, gave him two bags containing a .40 caliber handgun, a 9mm handgun, and cash, and told him to “take care of the house” before speeding off.
When police took the boy home, they found the garage and front doors open. Inside, officers discovered the home was in “disarray, with firearms lying out in the open.” The child told police that Guerrero Santos was religious and had called him the “chosen one,” often testing him with complex tasks, such as throwing him out onto the street.
Police tracked the couple’s cellphones to an address in Wauchula, about 60 miles north of North Port, where they were detained along with the second child.
Guerrero Santos has been charged with child neglect without great harm and permitting a minor to possess a firearm. Borja was charged with child neglect without great harm.
Guerrero Santos is being held on a $250,000 bond, while Borja is held on a $500,000 bond, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Both are set to be arraigned on October 31.
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