Man charged with abandoning 3-year-old daughter at a restaurant

A man was arrested last Sunday morning after leaving his 3-year-old daughter at a Subway restaurant in Harlem on Saturday July 11th, police said.

34 year old Stanley Fredrique, of Elmont, Long Island, has been charged with abandonment of a child, reckless endangerment and act in a manner injurious to a child.

The man and the toddler entered the restaurant around 11:30 p.m. The father bought the child a sandwich and then left, police said.
Police said the girl could tell them her name, Natalie, but not much else.

The man was being held at the 26th Precinct station house. As the father was being taken into custody, he protested his arrest.

“You guys not in my shoes, you guys don’t have no idea what’s going on,” Fredrique cried out.
Surviellance video shows Fredrique and his daughter happily walking toward the Subway shop where he bought the child a sandwich and left her there.

Rahman Mohammed, who was working at a fruit stand outside said he believes the father was drunk.
He said:

"The 3 year old said to her Dad ‘Daddy Daddy Daddy’ and the guy came back and talked to the girl, ‘little baby, oh go sit down, I’m come back,'” Mohammed said. “And that’s it, he left, ya, he left and didn’t come back again.” A good Samaritan at the restaurant then took her to a police station.

Fredrique was apparently intoxicated when he left the child at the restaurant, sources told Langford.
He told police he forgot her, and when he realized she was missing, he tried to report her missing to police, the sources said.

“We tried to ask her her last name, she couldn’t come up with her last name,” Detective Vincent Signoretti told Stern. “And before the good Samaritan walked her over to the local precinct, they tried walking around the neighborhood, and she couldn’t figure out where she lived either.”

Natalie, who was wearing a green dress with white polka dots and blue pants, was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital, for evaluation, but has no injuries.

The girl has since been released into the custody of her mother. The mother refused to give a comment to reporters.