VENTURA : Mothers Fail to Pick Up 6 Small Children

Six Ventura children ages 6 or younger were placed in foster care Wednesday after two mothers failed to pick up the children from baby-sitters, a county social services official said Thursday.

One mother has turned up, but the second was still missing late Thursday, police said.

“It was a very unusual night,” said Frank Ferratta of the county’s Public Social Services Agency. “We had two sets of three children brought in because someone didn’t come to pick them up from a baby-sitter.”

Ferratta said it is too early to say how long the children will remain in foster care, and that investigators are “in the middle of assessing both situations.”

Ventura Police Lt. Larry Lotton said it was unlikely that charges would be filed against a 32-year-old woman who left her three children with a neighbor on East Warner Street at 2 p.m. Wednesday, saying she would return within half an hour.

By 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, the woman had not returned to pick up her children, a 5-year-old boy, and two girls ages 3 and 1, police said.

Lotton said the Public Social Services Agency told him the woman “was making an honest effort” to care for the children and no charges would be filed.

Another woman, identified only as “Gidget,” had left her three girls, ages 6, 3 and 8 months, with a baby-sitter on East Santa Clara Street on Tuesday and had failed to return by Wednesday, Ventura police said.

“She said she was going to Nevada to pick up a motor vehicle, but she apparently didn’t have a driver’s license,” Desk Officer Graham Jeffrey said. “She didn’t turn up at 9 in the morning like she said she would.”

Ferratta said his agency is investigating the woman. “If she has a rational reason for being delayed, we would close our case and the children would be returned,” Ferratta said.