A grandfather in California reportedly wanted to have a drink but his 7-year-old granddaughter was with him, complicating things. Jason Warren, 54, apparently thought he found a solution when he decide to pay a homeless woman $20 to take the child to a thrift store while he imbibed.
A few hours later, Warren was reportedly frantically searching for the girl and told passersby that she'd been kidnapped.
According to a Facebook post from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, Warren was intoxicated after leaving the bar and was unable to find his granddaughter and the woman he'd given the money to. He reportedly told witnesses the child had been kidnapped and that he needed help finding her. Thankfully, the story has a happy ending and the child is safe, but Warren wound up in jail.
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Warren reportedly thought he could trust the woman to watch his granddaughter.
Lauren Jope, 34, told Fox 40 that Warren approached her about watching the young girl for him on May 6, 2024, while he went into a bar and gave her $20 for the job. She said the situation gave her pause, but she did it anyway.
"I was like, 'Okay that's a big thing… you don't know who I am,' but I knew that she would be safe with me," she explained. Jope said the child seemed comfortable with her, and the two stayed together for several hours.
Warren began searching for the child after a long stay in the bar.
According to police, deputies arrived at a parking lot near a bar in the 5300 block of Auburn Boulevard around 7:45 p.m. after a call about a man asking for help. Warren was allegedly "highly intoxicated" and reportedly said his granddaughter had been kidnapped for human trafficking. He admitted to police that he had given an unknown woman $20 to watch the girl earlier that afternoon but didn't know where they were.
A frantic search ensued.
The sheriff's department began a ground search and enlisted helicopters, K9 units and drones to find Jope and the child. The woman reportedly heard police calling for her and returned to the parking lot where she had met Warren earlier that day.
"She wasn't scared at all and it seemed like maybe something that had maybe happened before," Jope told Fox 40.
Authorities called Jope a 'guardian angel.'
The situation could have ended in tragedy, but thankfully, Jope was a woman of character and took good care of the little girl. Fox 40 reported that the police said she was the child's guardian angel.
"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," read a post on the sheriff department's Facebook page. "The female took the child to her 'camp' to get food. Deputies spoke with the child, who corroborated the ordeal. The child was not in distress and was medically cleared by Fire Department personnel at the scene as a precaution."
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Warren apparently doesn't think he did anything wrong.
The grandfather, who is in jail on a $75,000 bond, told Fox 40 that he would do the same thing again if a similar situation occurred.
"Yes I would. I didn't do anything wrong," he said. "Everything I did I told God about and I said, 'It's your will God, not my will. Let your will be done.'"
The girl is being cared for by her aunt, who has full custody, Fox 40 reported.
