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Toddler spends night in vehicle
By LINDA GIBSON
© St. Petersburg Times,
He unlocked the driver's side door, opened it and saw a 23-month-old boy curled up on the floor under the steering wheel. "I had the surprise of my life," he said Wednesday afternoon. "I was in shock. I'm like, where in the world did he come from?" Little Javonte Riley, who will be 2 in August, had spent more than 12 hours locked in Shannon's car, its tinted windows rolled up tight. He was dehydrated from his night and morning in the car, but was in good condition, authorities said. Javonte had gotten into Shannon's car the night before. Shannon, 49, had given three teenage girls a ride to Robles Park public housing complex about 10 p.m. One of them had a baby with her. When the girls got out of his car Tuesday night, he assumed they took Javonte with them. But they hadn't. Shannon got home about 11:30, rolled up the windows on the 1998 Ford Taurus, locked the doors and went inside to bed. Although the windows are tinted and it was parked in the shade, Javonte was dehydrated and sweating heavily when he finally was found. Palm prints on the front seat's passenger side window suggested he had tried to get out. While Javonte was locked in the car, police were looking for a man driving a Ford Taurus who they thought had abducted the boy. Shannon's 49-year-old wife, Brenda, saw a news report of the missing boy about the time Shannon found Javonte in the car. He called the police. After detectives questioned Shannon, they released him without charges. Javonte's mother, 28-year-old Denise R. Vatienson, spent several hours before dawn Wednesday driving around Robles Park in a search for the Ford Taurus. She had given the boy's babysitter permission to take Javonte along with her and her friends on their errand. She didn't know the driver of the car. Neither did 16-year-old Shalaundra Edwards, the boy's babysitter. "I thought the other girls knew him," she said Wednesday after Javonte had been found. The girls hadn't expected Shannon to drive off when they went inside an apartment in Robles Park to borrow some hair care products, they said. By 2:30 a.m., Vatienson called police to report her son missing. While they searched for Javonte, police arrested Vatienson on two warrants for violation of probation on drug charges. She was booked into the Orient Road Jail. The two girls with Edwards also had warrants outstanding for trespassing and possession of marijuana. They were taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center. Because they are juveniles, police did not release their names. Edwards, who was not charged with anything, said the boy they call "Doodlebug" is a friendly, playful child who already has a strong will. "He can barely talk, but he has to have the last word," she said. The Shannons, however, said Javonte didn't cry or say a word while they changed his diaper, gave him water to drink, and checked with a couple down the street to make sure he didn't belong to them. The Shannons worried that if the boy had been in the car any longer, he might not have made it. Even in the shade, temperatures inside a car can rise quickly during a Florida summer and be deadly to children left inside. The Shannons' car is equipped with a child seat for their 2-year-old granddaughter, Cheyenne. But it's only good for short trips to the grocery store, they said, because Cheyenne works her way out of the child seat if she's in it any longer. They think that's what Javonte did, or Shannon might have spotted him when he got out of the car Tuesday night. Also, the dome light on the car is broken, so it was dark when he locked up the car and went inside. Javonte's aunt, 32-year-old Tonya Riley, said Wednesday night that she was not allowed to see Javonte after police took him to University Community Hospital for an examination. She was hoping he would be released to her custody, but police said he was medically cleared and would be released to the state Department of Children and Families. "She's a good mother," Riley said of her sister, Vatienson. "She just made a bad mistake."
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