http://www.wnbc.com/news/13312847/detail.html


PASSAIC, N.J. -- A toddler spent the night of his second birthday in a car after his father forgot the boy was strapped in the back seat, police said.

Adonis Ribot, 2, was found on Sunday after spending about nine hours alone in the car. He was treated for dehydration and sunburn at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson.

His 32-year-old father, Danny Ribot, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.


Police said the father told them he remembered taking the boy to his birthday party in Paterson and then waking up in his Clifton home. Ribot first called his wife to ask if she knew where his son was, then called police and told them he couldn't remember where he'd left the boy, police said.

Police said they found the car, a black Lexus, on Broadway and Martin Street in Passaic, where they saw two people trying to break into it. The two people were the boy's grandparents and they were trying to get him out, police said.

Augustina Ribot, the boy's grandmother, spoke to NewsChannel 4 after the ordeal.

"Everything is over," she said. "He was a little dehydrated ... with the sun hitting the glass."

A side window of the car was smudged with fingerprints from a small hand. Police said Adonis was strapped into a car seat during his night in the vehicle.

The toddler has been placed in his mother's care.