A West Virginia man is charged with abandoning his teenage son at a Princeton convenience store on Tuesday.
Assistant Princeton Police Chief Shane Allison reports that officers responded to the Princeton Food Mart on Marion Road, where a 17-year-old boy said his father had left him. The teen told police they were driving from Illinois to West Virginia, and he asked his father to stop so his father could rest because he was driving recklessly. After stopping at the food mart, the teen claimed the father drove off, leaving him behind. Police said the teen waited, but his father did not return.
According to police, the father, 48-year-old John Ellis of West Union, was later found at a hotel in Central City. After an arrest warrant was obtained, Ellis was taken into custody by the Kentucky State Police on an abandonment of a minor charge. He was booked into the Muhlenberg County Jail.
Officers stayed with the teen until a family member from Illinois arrived to take him home.
