DALTON, Ga. — A Dalton man faces negligence and abandonment charges after leaving his 4-year-old daughter at a retail store while he grabbed a bite to eat and “a couple of beers,” according to a Dalton Police Department incident report. 

Samuel Jason Haney, 30, of 1741 Susan Drive, was charged Sunday by Dalton police with felony counts of reckless abandonment of a child and cruelty to children in the second degree (criminal negligence).

The manager of Big Lots in the Dalton Shopping Center on West Walnut Avenue called police after Haney left his daughter sitting in a shopping cart in the store aisle Sunday night, according to the incident report. Haney paid for his items but did not bring his shopping cart with him to the register. At the register, a worker said Haney told her he was “forgetful” before leaving the store. The manager told police Haney made an “odd statement that made no sense to him” when the manager tried to help him while he was shopping.

“She advised that she was 4 years old and wanted officers to help find her daddy because she was lost,” according to the report.

Haney returned more than an hour after leaving, running to the store and sobbing. He told officers he suffers from narcolepsy and forgets what he is doing often. Officers smelled alcohol on his breath and he admitted he left Big Lots to eat at the Fuji restaurant in the shopping center and had “a couple of beers.” 

Haney was released Monday from the Whitfield County jail on a $15,000 bond.