BY TOM SOMACH

A Florida man accused of leaving his two children in a car while he played poker was arrested, charged with child neglect and jailed, law enforcement authorities said.

A bystander called the St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office in Jacksonville, Fla., USA, last Wednesday afternoon after seeing two boys, aged 3 and 7, in a running car in the parking lot of St. John’s Greyhound Park, the authorities said.

The older boy told a deputy that his father, Terrence Davis, 36, of Jacksonville, was inside the Park’s poker room, so the deputy went inside and had security page Davis, who said he had been gambling for about 15 minutes, they said.

The boys’ mother responded and took custody of them, and Davis was charged with child neglect and was being held on $2,000 bond, they said.

Because the vehicle was left running and unattended, Davis could also face traffic charges, they said.

“In today’s society, you just never know,” St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan said.

“Someone could have gone and busted a window out and taken a child or taken them in a carjacking.”

A spokesman for the racetrack/poker room said Davis will be banned from all northeast Florida greyhound tracks/poker rooms.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)