Two little boys, ages 5 and 7, were found wandering the streets in Fort Lauderdale after their father left them home alone for two days, according to police.
The father, Jean Claude Maxime, 49, was arrested on Aug. 19 and faces two counts of child neglect, the Fort Lauderdale Police complaint affidavit said.
The boys had been home alone for two days with no supervision, the affidavit said.
"They stated that the dad, suspect, would leave them home a lot without food," the affidavit said. "Both victims advised that they are terrifed of their father and that they were ot to tell anyone about them being home alone."
But the boys were scared and decided to go to their mother's house, the report said.
The boys walked about a mile from the house, where a good Samaritan, Adam Alper, who saw the kids crossing a busy street, stopped to help them, authorities said.
Alper took the boys to a gas station and later drove them to the police station, according to the report.
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"They were crying, in the street, one of them hysterical," Alper told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The boys were later taken to their mother, who has been separated from Maxime for about five years, the newspaper reported.
"They said they were terrified of you, and were told not to tell anyone about being left at home," Broward County Judge John "Jay" Hurley told the father during his bond court hearing.
His bond was set to $2,000. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney.
The judge ordered prosecutors to notify the state's Department of Children and Families. The judge also requested Maxime to be put an ankle monitor if released on bond and ordered him to have no contact with his sons, the newspaper reported.
The mother told the newspaper that she regularly takes the boys to the father’s house during the weekend but that she would stop doing so.
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