Jonathan Carlton, Albany, Kentucky father charged with instructing son to steal from Walmart then abandoning teen after he was caught shoplifting.
Define positive role model? A Kentucky dad was arrested after allegedly instructing his teenage son to steal from a Walmart store.
Jonathan Carlton, 32, of Albany, KY, was arrested at the Cumberland Crossing Center around 2:30 p.m. Saturday according to the Monticello Police Department in a Facebook release.
Carlton according to the release, put items in a shopping cart and told his 13-year-old son to leave the store without paying for the items. However, before his son attempted to walk out with the items, Carlton also left the store.
Probably not the parent of the year
A store officer caught Carlton’s son leaving the store and notified police, only to locate the absconding parent Carlton at the nearby Cumberland Crossing Center.
According to an arrest affidavit viewed by Law&Crime, ‘[The boy] was stopped attempting to push the cart past all the points of purchase. During the investigation [the son] stated his father put him up to pushing the stuff out and his father left him there.’
The stepmother was outside, and said that her husband stepped out of the store, and made her leave the area, cops claim. She allegedly said she drove to the Monticello Motel, where they were staying. Neither of them contacted law enforcement regarding the boy, according to officers.
Following Carlton’s arrest, the father was charged with Abandonment of a Minor, Unlawful Transactions with a Minor and Endangering the Welfare of a Minor.
The parent remains held at the Wayne County Detention Center.
Not immediately clear is why the Kentucky father instructed his teen son to shoplift from the local Walmart store or how the the family came to be staying at a local motel.
