A policeman found the boy alone in a disheveled apartment Dec. 16 about 2 a.m. after the boy called 9-1-1 and told dispatchers he was home alone.
He told Patrolman Kevin M. Quinter that he called his mother’s cell phone about 20 times to find out where she was. He last spoke to her when he called her after getting off the bus. She said she was at a tanning salon and would be home soon.
The apartment looked like it had been ransacked, with women’s undergarments scattered throughout the living room. A small dog was in a cage, and dog feces and dog urine were in several places in the apartment.
While Quinter talked to the boy, the youth got a TV dinner from the freezer, stood on the counter and put it into the microwave.
His mother, Andraya M. Howard, 25, would leave the apartment door unlocked and microwave dinners in the freezer for him, they said.