A Florida couple is facing multiple charges after allegedly abandoning their 16-year-old son on the side of Interstate 75 with two handguns and cash, telling him to “fend for himself,” police said.
According to a probable cause affidavit, North Port police received a call around 6 p.m. on Oct. 1 about a boy walking along I-75, roughly a mile south of Sumter Boulevard.
Officers found the teen, who said he had been traveling with Bradley Leon Guerrero Santos, 36, and Roseanella Mendola Borja, 35, along with his 8-year-old sibling.
The teen told police the couple had suddenly packed for a trip “to Guam or Idaho.” When he said he didn’t want to go, they pulled over, handed him two bags containing a .40-caliber handgun, a 9mm handgun, and cash, and ordered him out of the car.
Police later found the family’s North Port home with its doors open, cluttered, and firearms left out in the open.
Investigators traced the couple’s phones to Wauchula, where local police detained them.
Santos and Borja were charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, and Santos faces an additional charge of allowing a juvenile to possess a firearm.
Both remain in Sarasota County Jail on $500,000 bond each, authorities said.
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