Volusia Deputies: Man Left 3-year-old in Pickup While Drinking At Strip Club

Jordan Caraway

DELAND, Florida -- Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a DeLand man early Sunday morning for allegedly leaving a 3-year-old child alone in a pickup truck while he drank at a gentlemen’s club. The defendant, 25-year-old Jordan Caraway, was charged with child neglect.

The incident occurred at Dixie’s Gentlemen’sClub just north of DeLand shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday.  By the time a deputy was alerted to the situation at 1:44 a.m., witnesses said Caraway had been in the bar drinking for approximately 20-30 minutes.  Caraway told deputies that he had left another man to watch the child while he was in the bar. 

However, an employee at the club told deputies that both Caraway and the man who he claimed was watching the little boy were in the club together drinking alcohol for approximately 20-30 minutes and the child was left alone in the truck.  The employee grabbed the child from the truck and brought him inside the bar to wait for law enforcement to arrive. Deputies say that when they got there, the boy was crying hysterically, he had grease and dirt on him and his clothes were dirty.

According to the club’s manager, Caraway may have actually left the child alone in the truck twice. Someone reported a child being left alone in a vehicle in the parking lot around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night.  But when employees went to check it out, the truck was gone. It returned at about 1:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, again with the child in it. Caraway was arrested at the scene and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach, Florida.