Worst Dad Ever!

Um, this isn't funny at all. According to press reports, Michael Monahan of Aquinnah has been charged with domestic assualt and wanton or reckless endangerment of a child for locking his kids in the truck of his car.

The kids are okay, at least physically. According to the Herald, the crime was observed by a store clerk and reported to police. The man told police he thought it was “kind of odd” that the children were naked while being changed in the trunk on the drizzly day, Mauretti said.

When Monahan entered the shop, the witness asked where the two children were and the suspect told him inside the car, Mauretti related. But when the witness persisted and went outside to look inside the car windows, he did not see the children.

When the man asked the suspect further about the children, he said Monahan took out a set of keys, unlocked the trunk and there were the two boys, the younger sleeping and his brother crying, Mauretti said.

Police learned later that a Coleman gas can was in the trunk.  

The businessman told the boys’ father he was calling the police. After “heated conversation over the matter,” the man said Monahan put the boys in the car and left the scene, Mauretti related.

The witness noted the registration number and notified police.

Detective Lawrence Ferreira, along with other Major Crimes Division detectives, tracked Monahan down after running the plate number.

Suspecting he may have taken the boys home, police had state police on Martha’s Vineyard check the residence and a school for the children, but they were not found there. Also, the Steamship Authority indicated no such vehicle was taken to the island.

The children’s mother was located through a phone number and she went to the Fall River police station.

“Eventually the father came to the station, was questioned and arrested,” Mauretti said.

The state Department of Children and Families was notified and the children were placed in the mother’s care, he said.  

Mauretti commended the man from the sailing shop for his efforts.

“The civilian’s persistence in looking out for the safety of the children is commendable,” he said.