http://www.nbc5i.com/news/9694824/detail.html

POSTED: 10:56 am CDT August 17, 2006
UPDATED: 4:22 pm CDT August 17, 2006

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Fort Worth police Thursday said a man left his three children inside the cab of his idling tractor-trailer for as many as three days while he went on a drug binge.



Police said they found Jibrib Ali, 32, nearby in what they call a known drug house and that he appeared to be under the influence of narcotics.


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He was transported by ambulance to a hospital because of health problems possibly related to a drug binge, NBC 5 reported.

"He exhibited some medical complications consistent with being under crack cocaine," Fort Worth police Lt. Dean Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the truck had been sitting in the 5800 block of Libbey Avenue in west Fort Worth for several days, according to neighbors.

The children, ages 8, 11 and 12, told officers their father left them alone and had been gone for "a while."

The air conditioning was on and there was some food in the vehicle, Sullivan said. He also said the children were found in good condition.

A woman who claimed to be Ali's wife admitted that the children were left alone, but that the truck was comfortable.

"It's 68 degrees in the truck," she said.

When reporters asked the woman why she had left the children alone for three days, she said, "Because I was trying to get my husband out of the house."

When asked what Ali was doing in the house, she said, "No comment."

Police said they would charge Ali with three felony counts of child endangerment.

The children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.