Man who left kids in sweltering car nabbed again

Jeremiah Hollenbeck

LAWRENCE, Mass. - Nearly two years after his arrest for leaving his twins in a sweltering hot car in Franklin, N.H., while shoplifting from a Family Dollar, a Lebanon man has been arrested on another endangerment charge, this time for allegedly having them in his car while buying heroin from a Lawrence, Mass., drug dealer.

Jeremiah Hollenbeck, 30, was arrested around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and charged with possession of heroin, child endangerment and failure to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk in front of the New Balance factory on South Union Street, according to the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence. When arrested in Franklin, his address in Lebanon was given as 678 River Road.

Hollenbeck could be in even more hot water as he was on good behavior for two years after pleading guilty to child endangerment from the 2013 charges and now faces 12 months in a New Hampshire jail.

Police on Tuesday said he had his two two-year-old twins buckled up in car seats in the back seat when he made the buy from a Lawrence woman moments before he was stopped.

The same twins, then nine months old, were left in a sweltering hot car with the engine not running and the windows rolled up on July 18, 2013, in Franklin while Hollenbeck shoplifted.

A 911 call from a concerned passer-by who saw children in the hot car sent police to the parking lot around 4 p.m. as the temperature outside soared to 97 degrees. The twins, along with two other children, then 5 and 9, were in Hollenbeck's vehicle, a Subaru, for 10 to 15 minutes, police estimated.

Shortly after police arrived Hollenbeck approached the car and was asked to open the doors which revealed all four children were in heat-related distress, police said.

All four were treated by Franklin Rescue and later released. Hollenbeck was charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of receiving stolen property, and a felony level possession of a controlled narcotic.

On Tuesday, Hollenbeck was being held at Middleton jail on $500 cash bail on the Lawrence arrests, which ensued after a concerned citizen reported seeing what appeared to be a drug deal in a blue Volvo station wagon on Market Street, according to a report filed by Detective David Moynihan, the Eagle-Tribune reported.

Officers with the Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit saw Hollenbeck meet briefly with Perez, then return to his car, police said.

Hollenbeck then drove through the crosswalk in front of New Balance without stopping for pedestrians and took a right on Canal Street - which would have brought him to Interstate 495 and afforded him a quick trip back to his home, Moynihan noted in his report.

Police stopped Hollenbeck on Canal Street and recovered 10 grams of heroin, Moynihan wrote. Meanwhile, Capt. Roy Vasque and Detective Radames Gonzalez arrested Perez, who was walking on Canal Street.

Sitting between the twins, who were secured in car seats, was Jamie Eaton, 42, of Somersworth, N.H., according to Moynihan's report. Eaton was arrested and charged with possession of heroin.

Police notified the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families as well as Maine social service authorities of the toddlers' exposure to drug activity, the paper reported.

Meanwhile, Hollenbeck remains today at the Essex County Jail in Middleton, Mass.

As part of the plea agreement reached two years ago, he was also to undergo drug and alcohol abuse counseling as well as parenting classes.