A Northern California man paid a random homeless woman $20 to babysit his granddaughter as he got drunk, touching off a massive law enforcement search for that girl, authorities said.
Jason Warren, 54, gave that homeless woman $20 on Monday to take his granddaughter to a thrift store while he went into a nearby bar for four hours, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff's statement.
Later, a "highly intoxicated" Warren appeared in a parking lot in the 5300 block of Auburn Boulevard in Sacramento, pleading for help to find his 7-year-old granddaughter who "had been kidnapped for human trafficking," deputies said he claimed.
The sheriff's department launched a search with a helicopter, drones and a dog before the homeless woman heard announcements from the copter and returned to the parking lot with the child, deputies said.
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"The female confirmed that Warren had given her money to take the child to the thrift store. She went on to tell Deputies that Warren was highly intoxicated and she did not think he could care for the child," the sheriff's statement said. "The female took the child to her 'camp' to get food. Deputies spoke with the child, who corroborated the ordeal."
The girl did not appear to be physically harmed by her stay with the homeless woman, 34-year-old Lauren Jope.
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"I"m glad that I was walking when I was because, you know, she could have been left with some man, or somebody who doesn't want to watch her," Jope told reporters on Tuesday. "I just wanted to make sure she was safe, she's OK."
A short time after their initial meeting, Jope said Warren was intoxicated and she feared for the girl's safety.
"The guy was totally belligerently drunk and just kind of scary, he turned into a totally different person and so I got his granddaughter away until things kind of simmered down," she said.
Sheriff's Sgt. Amar Gandhi praised Jope for her actions in the moment.
"We were miraculously lucky that it was Lauren that stepped in," Gandhi said. "She's a guardian angel ... I can't sing her praises high enough."
Warren was booked on suspicion of child endangerment. He was released from custody on Wednesday, jail records showed.
"She was about 28 to 30 yeas old ... I could tell by her character that she was a decent person. I trusted her like I would trust my sister or my cousin," Warren told KTXL, a Fox affiliate in Sacramento, during a jailhouse interview.
Warren said he doesn't understand why he's being blamed.
"I didn't do anything wrong," he said. "Everything I did, I told God, 'It's your will, God, not my will. Let your will be done. You put this lady in my path so that I could have someone watch my granddaughter.'"
An aunt of the 7-year-old has full custody of her, deputies said. She asked Warren to care of his granddaughter while she went to work, officials said.
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