OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — An Oil City man is facing child endangerment and drug-related charges after police discovered that he had left a child alone in the middle of the night.

Court documents indicate the Oil City Police Department filed criminal charges against 42-year-old Robert Harold Boyer, of Oil City.

According to a criminal complaint, around 1:13 a.m. on Saturday, August 11, officers of the Oil City Police Department noticed Robert Boyer, who was known to them from a prior incident, walking near a southside convenience store carrying a plastic grocery bag.

The complaint indicates that based on speaking with Boyer earlier in the night, the officers were aware that he lived alone with his six-year-old daughter. Noting that he was walking alone, the officers circled around and made contact with Boyer near his residence.

Boyer sat the plastic bag on the sidewalk and walked over to speak with the officers.

According to the complaint, when Patrolman Drake asked Boyer about the child, Boyer said she was in the residence sleeping, and when asked if he had left her alone while he was gone, he said that he had.

Boyer said he went to meet a friend and get some food and also said he had “made a poor decision in leaving the child alone,” the complaint states.

Boyer was then taken into custody and placed in the patrol vehicle.

Lieutenant Love entered the house with CYS and found the child asleep in a bed in the kitchen of the residence. Lieutenant Love spoke to the child, and she told him she didn’t know her father had left, the complaint indicates.

The complaint also notes that the child seemed afraid.

The child was then taken into protective custody and transported to the Oil City Police Station. Her mother was contacted to pick her up.

Lieutenant Love then retrieved Boyer’s belongings from where he had left them on the sidewalk and placed the bag containing food in the residence.

According to the complaint, as Lieutenant Love moved the bag, he noticed a female wristlet type wallet inside. Upon opening to the wallet to try to identify its owner, he found a small plastic baggy containing suspected methamphetamine and a gray plastic tube with residue inside.

Based on the investigation, Boyer was arraigned at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 11, in Magisterial District Judge Patrick E. Lowrey’s office on the following charges:

– Endangering Welfare of Children — Parent/Guardian/Other Commits Offense, Misdemeanor 1
– Intentional Possession Controlled Substance By Person Not Registered, Misdemeanor
– Use/Possession Of Drug Paraphernalia, Misdemeanor

Boyer is free on $5,000.00 unsecured bail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 15, in Venango County Central Court.