A father in Wisconsin is facing serious charges after he reportedly left his baby locked in his car during a snowstorm while he went drinking at a bar. According to WBAY, Merriett Cox has been accused of leaving his baby locked in a car while he went into a Menasha bar for several hours.
Cox is now facing child neglect and bail jumping charges for leaving his 2-month-old daughter out in the car during a bitter snowstorm. According to reports, a security camera caught Cox pulling into the parking lot of the Redliner Bar in Menasha.
Theresa Gietman, who was working behind the bar that night, has since revealed what she remembers about Cox and his behavior. “A gentleman came in. I didn’t get the impression that he was over served or drunk at all so I did end up serving him,” Gietman said.
“He was bouncing off the walls going to the restroom,” she added. Cox was reportedly so intoxicated at the time that he actually fell off his barstool at one point during the evening.
“I gave him water, took his keys away. I did everything I could,” Gietman said. According to WBAY, Gietman immediately called the owner of the bar, Ken Zastrow, who came in to call a cab for Cox.
While Zastrow was calling cab companies, however, Cox reportedly asked him to send somebody outside to check on “his girl,” who was in the car. Cox’s “girl” ended up being his 2-and-a-half-month-old daughter, who had been locked in the car for more than three hours.
“I couldn’t believe somebody would do that,” says Gietman. Adding, “I was crying and shaking. We were trying to get him to bring her into the bar.” Fortunately, Gietman and another bar patron managed to convince Cox to bring the baby girl inside the bar.
Although Cox did not seem to want to let go of his daughter, he eventually handed the baby to Menasha Police Officer Tony Edwards.
Edwards then changed and fed the baby girl before more help arrived at the scene. “A lot of people did a lot of really good things, otherwise this could have been a very tragic situation,” Menasha Police Chief Tim Styka said.
According to police, the baby girl was taken to the hospital and has since been placed into the care of her mother, who was at work when the horrifying incident occurred.
