NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A North Carolina couple was arrested in North Myrtle Beach Saturday night after a neighborhood resident discovered their 2-year-old child wandering in the drive-way.
According to an incident report from the North Myrtle Beach Police Department, officers responded to Riptide Circle in North Myrtle Beach around 11 p.m. Saturday night about a situation possibly involving child neglect.
Robert Hendrix, 45, and Sarah Hendrix, 29, both of Cornelius, NC, were arrested and each charged with one count of unlawful neglect of a child as a result of the call.
Officers met with a neighborhood resident who said she was walking her dog when she passed by a home on Riptide Circle and saw a 2-year-old girl standing in the drive-way. She looked around for a parent and discovered the girl’s mom and dad, Robert and Sarah Hendrix, sitting in a golf cart on the other side of a vehicle drinking alcohol.
The neighbor alerted the parents to the little girl getting close to the road and Sarah Hendrix “acted surprised, thank her, and took the child back inside,” the report states. The neighbor continued her walk but before returning home decided to circle back around to the home of the young girl. The neighbor discovered Robert Hendrix passed out in the golf cart in the drive-way of the home, but could not locate Sarah Hendrix, the report details. The concerned neighbor decided to stay at the residence with the 2-year-old girl until Sarah Hendrix returned.
While the neighbor waited with the young girl and another child who was in the home, a second neighbor stopped by the residence and explained Sarah Hendrix was at her home, that Hendrix seemed very intoxicated and was talking about a fight she had had with her husband.
The report states when officers arrived they woke Robert Hendrix, who was still passed out on the golf cart, and discovered Sarah Hendrix was very intoxicated and could not answer the officer’s questions. DSS was notified of the situation and two children were left in the custody of a friend of family member of Robert and Sarah Hendrix.
Robert and Sarah Hendrix were both released from J. Reuben Long Detention Center within 10 hours of their arrests, according to online booking records.
