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Pasco deputies: Mother left 2-year-old twins alone to go to the gym

 
Melissa Serrano, 29, told deputies she left her twin boys home alone and went to the gym.
Melissa Serrano, 29, told deputies she left her twin boys home alone and went to the gym.
Published May 28, 2016

LAND O'LAKES — Jose Fernandez was on his way home Thursday evening when he noticed two small boys wandering along a sidewalk. It was almost 9 p.m. and the children, 2-year-old twin brothers, were in their pajamas, barefoot.

When Fernandez asked them where they lived, he said the boys pointed in opposite directions.

Where was their mother? At the gym, deputies said.

When she got home that night, 29-year-old Melissa Sue Serrano was arrested on two counts of child neglect, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Fernandez said he called 911. Deputies arrived quickly, but he had to stay with the children about 40 minutes longer.

"I have a 2-year-old, so that just hit home," said Fernandez, 32.

An hour after he called, Fernandez said, the mother arrived home at 3512 Gerrads Cross Court. She was arrested about 10:15 p.m.

Serrano told deputies that she left the children home to go to the gym, possibly the LA Fitness at 6411 E County Line Road, on the Tampa side of the Pasco-Hillsborough county line. Deputies said the mother told them she left the children asleep, but unattended.

"The defendant knew or should have known that leaving toddlers, of that age, without supervision could have resulted in serious bodily injury or death," a deputy wrote in her arrest report, adding the mother "showed absolutely no remorse for her actions."

The Sheriff's Office did not say who took custody of the children. Serrano was being held Friday in the Pasco County jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.

Contact Hannah Alani at halani@tampabay.com or (813) 909-4617. Follow @hannahalani.