Background: A section of the 17200 block of Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida (Google Maps). Inset: Semyon Levin (Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A Florida father whose 4-year-old son wandered away onto the sidewalk of a busy road reasoned that the boy “has too much energy,” authorities say.
Semyon Levin, 63, has been charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, according to Miami-Dade County court records reviewed by Law&Crime. He has pleaded not guilty.
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On Wednesday at about 3 p.m., Levin was at a Starbucks in Sunny Isles, Florida, which is located just north of Miami Beach. He was eating and watching his 4-year-old son — until, suddenly, he wasn’t.
The boy wandered off, and the defendant said “he lost sight of him,” per an arrest affidavit filed by the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department. However, though he didn’t know where his son was, the father didn’t take “immediate action such as contacting police to request help in locating him.”
Levin said his daughters — ages 9 and 7 — were walking home from the Starbucks along with “an adult,” and he believed his son had gone with them. The father added “that he constantly loses sight” of his son and that the boy “has too much energy, making it hard for him to keep him in sight.”
When officers asked why he didn’t call police, Levin allegedly “stated that he did not think [the boy] being lost constituted an emergency.”
An officer with the police department was conducting a traffic stop on 17200 Collins Avenue in the city when a motorist stopped him, saying there was “a wandering small child on the sidewalk.” The boy was walking north on the sidewalk parallel to Collins Avenue, “had visible redness on his face,” and was carrying a half-eaten slice of pizza.
The officer placed the child in his vehicle and canvassed the area, trying to find the boy’s parents or guardians.
It was at this point that he apparently noticed a woman “walking rapidly” outside a nearby apartment complex, and she was accompanied by a girl. The woman was Levin’s wife, and she “confirmed to me that she was looking for her son.”
The woman contacted Levin, who then “responded to the scene and admitted” that the boy had been under his supervision. The boy had been away from his father for about an hour, the officer added.
Levin was arrested and placed in jail, and he appeared in court on Thursday. It is unclear when he is scheduled to return.
The post Father let his 4-year-old son wander around busy road for an hour without calling 911 because the kid ‘has too much energy’: Police first appeared on Law & Crime.
