Mrs Behavin

MANTECA, Calif. (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, 39, and his wife, Michelle De La Vega, 32, left Calero's sons - Joshua 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 Jacob Calero married De La Vega last year.

Joshua, interviewed Wednesday at his maternal grandmother's apartment in Manteca, said his dad and stepmother 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.

The 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 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.

Neighbors went to the house Saturday after hearing the younger boy screaming "Help me! Help me!" in the family's garage, Kalinowski said. Finding no one home, they took him to their house and left a note behind. When Joshua returned after about an hour, he took his brother home.

Arresting the husband and wife on suspicion of two felony counts each of child endangerment was a "no-brainer," Kalinowski said. They were each being held at the Martinez jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Joshua, who said he was glad his father was arrested, explained that he and his brother ate cereal for breakfast and cooked frozen dinners in the microwave for other meals. He said his dad and stepmother left 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."

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.

"It seems to me that, as a parent, you would take a plane, train or automobile to come back to your kids as soon as possible," Kalinowski said. "We get the sense that they felt no urgency for them to return home."

They flew from Las Vegas early Wednesday and were arrested at Oakland International Airport about 11 a.m. Both have requested lawyers and have refused to talk to police, Kalinowski said. Felony child endangerment carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

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.

Calero is a plumber and De La Vega works in a dental office, police said.

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Associated Press Writers Kim Curtis in San Francisco and Michael Liedtke in San Ramon contributed to this report.

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Rusteh

sounds like some parents of a buddy of mine...no wonder the guy is turned out to be a druggie waste of space

lemon

thats fucked up :tard

Haus

:agree they shouldnt even beable to have kids.

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vshayes

definally glad they are in jail now.

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hhayes

:agree

dt3

Shoot em. Yes, I'm serious. These people seriously should not be allowed to continue in our society, and we should make sure they never again reproduce.

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Kerrie

Hopefully the judge assigned to this case isn't one of those that believes that the family needs to be kept together no matter what the parents have done.

Stick a very large sign around their necks proclaiming what they've done and make them stand on the court house lawn.