Daniel Avey went on a motorcycle ride Tuesday night, which probably wouldn't have been a problem had he not allegedly left his children -- ages 3 and 5 -- home alone to play with lighters.
The cops say that qualifies as child abuse.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, a neighbor came out of her house and found Avey's children crying in front of the Phoenix home, and the youngsters told the woman "their dad had left them."
She asked if that was their dad's car in the driveway, and the kids said it was -- but said he took off on his motorcycle.
The neighbor knocked on the door to be sure Avey wasn't in there, and hung out with the kids for about 30 minutes, thinking Avey had just gone to the store, according to the documents.
Avey apparently didn't even leave his kids with his phone number, as the only number the kids had was for their mother, who doesn't live at the same house.
While the woman was waiting for the kids' mom to show up, the 3-year-old went into the house, and grabbed some of her toys a pair of lighters, the documents say.
The neighbor didn't think that was the greatest idea, and took the lighters away from the girl.
Police say pops showed up back at the house just shy of 1 a.m., and found that his kiddos were no longer in the house.
He called the children's mother and found out she had them, and informed her that "she better call the cops because he was coming," the documents state.
She did call the cops, and police eventually found Avey trying to hide in the dark near the woman's residence.
Police asked Avey what was up with leaving the kids home alone, to which he informed them that he was "plead[ing] the 5th."
Based on the fact that the youngsters were left with lighters, and access to the roadway in front of his house, Avey was booked on two counts of child abuse, according to the documents.
