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GREENSBORO — A persistent debt collector in Cleveland recently led police to a 4-year-old boy at home alone in Greensboro. And now the boy’s father faces a charge of child abuse.

LaTosha Kincaid-Coker said her maternal instincts kicked in when she made a routine collection call about 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 12  to a number she thought belonged to a debtor in High Point.

To her surprise, a child picked up the phone.

“He didn’t recognize the name (I asked for),” Kincaid-Coker, a mother of seven  — including 4-year-old twins — said in a phone interview.

“I asked to speak to his dad. He said, 'My dad isn’t here.’ I asked, 'Who’s there?’ And he told me, 'No one is here. I am here by myself.’”

The boy told the woman that his sisters were at school and both of his parents were at work.

“I asked him if they left him there all the time by himself and he said yes,” she said. “He said, 'When I am 5, I will be able to go to school.’”

Alarmed, Kincaid-Coker called authorities in Davidson County and gave them an address she had on file. Officers checked out the address but  didn’t find a child there.

Frustrated, the debt collector called the boy back to get an address from him, and he eventually told her a mumbled version of the words “Dawn Ridge Trail”  and the names of his parents.

With that, she looked at online tax records, matched the names of the boy’s parents to an address at 6108 Dawn Ridge Trail  in Greensboro and contacted Guilford-Metro 9-1-1.

About 90 minutes after Kincaid-Coker first made contact with the boy, Greensboro police responded to the home and found just what she had suspected — a child left alone.

Lt. Hope Newkirk said an officer charged the boy’s father, 49-year-old Hamid Ettorchi, with misdemeanor child abuse.

Newkirk said Ettorchi told officers that his wife was supposed to be watching the child.

Police notified the Guilford County Department of Social Services but could not confirm whether DSS took any action against the child’s parents.

A spokesman with DSS did not return a message left Thursday.

Attempts to reach Ettorchi for comment have been unsuccessful.

Kincaid-Coker said her maternal instincts led her to make sure the boy was OK.

“I had tears in my eyes,” she said of the incident. “When I got over my emotions, I was angry. I’m definitely glad nothing happened to him and it wasn’t someone else on the end of the phone, such as a pedophile or someone else who could harm him.”

Kincaid-Coker said she spent more than four hours researching, making telephone calls and following up to ensure the boy was safe. She felt fortunate that her employer was understanding.

“It was something I couldn’t stomach,” she said of  the child being alone. “I couldn’t rest until I did something about it.

“I called not to get the person in trouble, but to make society aware that this is unacceptable,” Kincaid-Coker said. “It’s unacceptable to leave a child at home by themselves.”
 
Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com