Police arrested a Florida man who was beaten bloody by fellow bar patrons after they learned he left his three children in the car to drink beer.
Officers found 28-year-old Joshua Delong bleeding on the floor of Dr. B’s Bar in Ocala after a security guard called police to report the children left attended outside, reported WESH-TV.
The security guard, Christopher Chung, said he tried to talk the man out of driving with the children, ages 5,7, and 8, because he believed Delong was too drunk.
Chung said another patron then struck the 28-year-old Delong, and several other men dragged him outside and beat him.
A witness had called police shortly before the beating to report the children left alone for four hours in a gold Cadillac with the windows up and a key in the ignition.
The children were honking the horn and yelling “daddy,” the witness said.
A woman at the scene stayed with the children and kept them calm until police arrived.
Delong told officers he left the children with his mother, but his wife dropped them off at the bar without him knowing.
But both women denied his claims.
Delong was treated and released from an Orlando hospital and then booked into Marion County Jail on three counts of child neglect.
