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Police: Pups get sitter, kids left alone
10-year-old of parents: 'I thought they loved them more than us'

Thursday, January 5, 2006 Posted: 0301 GMT (1101 HKT)

MANTECA, California (AP) -- A husband and wife -- who found a dog sitter for their new puppies but left their 9-year-old son home to care for his younger autistic brother while they celebrated the new year in Las Vegas -- were arrested Wednesday, police said.

Jacob Calero and his wife, Michelle De la Vega, left Calero's sons -- Joshua, 9, and Jason, 5 -- at their San Ramon home early Friday while the newlyweds headed out of town for a five-day trip, police said.

The children's mother, Cristina Calero, died of breast cancer in 2003 and Calero married De la Vega last year.

The maternal grandmother, Libbey Holden, said she called police after she suspected the couple had left the children behind.

"I had big concerns," Holden said Wednesday, sitting in her Manteca apartment filled with family pictures, including smiling portraits of her late daughter. "These kids are helpless."

Police said they found the children asleep in their beds Saturday night, a day after being left alone. A gas fireplace was turned on, but they found nothing out of the ordinary.

"It appears that the food and the environment were set up for them to be alone," San Ramon Police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski said.

The older boy said he was instructed to not answer the front door, so officers had to use a ladder to enter the home through an unlocked sliding glass door on a second-floor balcony.

Joshua said he and his brother ate cereal for breakfast and cooked frozen dinners in the microwave for lunch and dinner. He said his dad and stepmother left Friday morning while they were asleep. They had asked him to watch his younger brother, but didn't tell him where they were staying, he said.

"They shouldn't leave us alone," Joshua said, sitting in the living room of his grandmother's apartment. "I didn't know who I could call in an emergency. Even if I called my father, he's far away so there wouldn't be much he could do."

Joshua said the couple got each other puppies for Christmas and went so far as to bring the pug and the poodle-Maltese mix to De la Vega's mother before leaving town.

"I thought they loved them more than us," the boy said.

Holden said she tried calling Calero, but couldn't reach him. Worried, she consulted friends and finally decided to call authorities.

Officers began calling Calero's cell phone Saturday, but he didn't call back until Tuesday.

They flew from Las Vegas early Wednesday and were arrested at Oakland International Airport and jailed in Contra Costa County.

The exact charges were not immediately clear. Authorities scheduled a late afternoon news conference.

Joshua said it wasn't the first time he and his brother were left home alone. Last fall, his dad and stepmother kept him out of school for a week so he could baby-sit his brother while they went away, he said.

Calero and De la Vega are both cosmetic dentists in Santa Clara.

From wicked_wish It's a writer's job to eavesdrop, yes?

It's a writer's job to eavesdrop, yes?
[Overheard in McDonald's this morning]

Two little boys, approximately 4 or 5 years old, spy each other in line. Their mothers are holding their respective hands, staring straight ahead at the menu board with that dispassionate glazed look -- like they're pumping gas, or waiting for a dog to do its business.

Little boy #1: Hey! You get McDonald's for breakfast too!
Little boy #2: Yeah! I'm getting pancakes! I thought I was never going to get pancakes again.
Little boy #1: How come? Your mom doesn't make pancakes at home?
Little boy #2: No. I only get them here. And I didn't think I was ever going to taste them ever again.
Little boy #1: How come?
Little boy #2: Because after my little brother's birthday party, my Mom said she'd rather take it up the ass than eat here anymore.

* Who, as he was being led back to a booth by his hysterically laughing mother, was fussing, "BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!"