Morris Township, NJ cops find boy living alone for months after dad left U.S.

MORRIS TOWNSHIP — A 14-year-old had been living alone for several months, after initially arriving here from Central America with his father, according to police.

The male teen was spotted riding a bicycle in the dark around 4 a.m. on June 11 in Morris Township.

When a police sergeant began following him due to the lack of safety lights, the teen entered a nearby home.

A neighbor then told police that the boy lived in the area but didn’t have a legal guardian, as a relative had stopped caring for him months earlier.

The teen had arrived from Honduras with his father, who then put his son in a family member’s care before returning to that country two years ago, police said.

The exact relationship between the teen and the relative whom he had been living with since his father’s departure was not clear as of Thursday.

There also were no further details on where the teen had been living independently.

After a medical checkup at a local hospital, the boy was then turned over to the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier headline for this story should have said that the boy had been living alone for months even though the father had left two years ago.