Balcones Heights PD: Woman arrested after 2 young children found alone in apartment

A woman was arrested Saturday after police found a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl alone in an apartment, according to a Balcones Heights Police Department arrest report.

According to the report, officers were dispatched to an apartment in the 700 block of Gentleman Road after a Rent-A-Center employee reported two unattended children.

The employee told police he went to collect a past-due payment when a boy answered the door and said his mother wasn’t home. He said he saw a girl peeking from behind the kitchen counter and called police after waiting 10 to 15 minutes, the report said.

Officers knocked at both doors and got no answer, the report said.

Mariana Soto Montezuma arrived shortly after and identified herself as the children’s aunt. After the assistant property manager unlocked the door, the report said, an officer found the children “crying and visibly frightened” with no adult inside.

The report states the boy’s mother told police she had been at University Hospital with tooth pain and had left both children in Soto Montezuma’s care. She said the children did not know how to cook or call 911 and did not have access to a phone.

Soto Montezuma was arrested on two counts of abandoning a child with intent to return and illegal entry from a foreign nation, records show.

Both children were released to their mothers at the scene, the report states.