Police: Couple left young kids alone

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Police say two small Virginia Beach children were left to fend for themselves when their parents went to work. Officers arrested 34-year-old Julie Hammock, the kids' mother and her husband 28-year-old Clinton Harris.

Police found the kids at the couple's apartment on Savoy Court at the Mariners Cove Apartment Complex.

"I'm extremely grateful that nothing happened," said Bobby Hammock.

Last week, Chesapeake's Bobby Hammock got an unexpected phone call. The voice on the other end was from Child Protective Services telling him that his 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter had been left alone.

"Shock was not even a word that I would use to describe it," added Hammock.

Virginia Beach police say Hammock's ex-wife Julie and her new husband, 28-year-old Clinton Harris, both in the Navy, left for work leaving the 6-year-old in charge.

"He told me that he had gotten up, made some cereal for him and his sister and then got on the bus and went to school," said Hammock.

The little boy is a first grader at Pembroke Meadows Elementary. His teacher told Hammock she suspected something was wrong.

"She is the one that explained to me that she noticed the key around his neck and she had noticed it for a few days," added Hammock. "She asked him about it and that's when he explained that he had it so he could lock the door behind him and get into the house when he got home from school."

School officials called police. Officers found the little girl locked inside the couple's apartment. Julie Hammock told police she was forced to leave the kids, because she didn't have money for daycare.

"She could have called me," said Bobby Hammock. "I would have taken a vacation day or a sick day. I would have taken the kids."

Hammock and Harris were arrested. They've since bonded out of jail and back with the children. That has Bobby Hammock worried.

"Until it happened the first time, it would have never crossed my mind," added Hammock. "Now it's all I can pretty much think about. I'm terrified to be honest."

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