Two young boys abandoned at southeast Houston church

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Two young children are with Child Protective Services after a man and women dropped them off at a Southpark church Tuesday night.

We're told they initially attempted to abandon the boys, who are four and five years old, at the fire station across on Van Fleet. When firefighters wouldn't accept them under the Baby Moses Law, they took the boys to Trinity Missionary Baptist Church.

"When I get outside there's a young man and a young lady with two little children with luggage and bags of clothing," said Pastor Antione Eakins.

Eakins says he asked the two what was going on.

"The guy tells me these children belong to a friend of ours, and we have not seen their mother in about two days, and we're tired of them."

Inside the bags were the boys' food stamp cards, as well as other documents. We were the only crew on the scene while Pastor Eakins and his members waited for police to arrive.

The people who left them also left a number for their mother. Members from his church called, and he tells us she called back several hours later, and explained where she'd been.

"She had gone to 'make money' for the night. She was dealing in an overnight gig with some clients and she just left the children there," he said. "I guess she thought she was leaving the children with responsible parties."

HPD responded and took the boys to Child Protective Services, where spokesman Estella Olguin says they remain. Because the children aren't technically in CPS custody, she couldn't comment on the specifics of this case, but says it's definitely one they'd investigate.

"So what we would do is of course make sure the children are going to be safe, then talk to all parties: find out from mom or parents what actually happened, who were the children left with, who was taking care of the children," Olguin said. "And talk to the people who had concerns about the children, get their side of the story."

Olguin says that process has started. They're in the process of talking to the boys' mother to get to the bottom of this, and haven't had contact with the two people who dropped them off. But she says anyone in this situation should call the CPS hotline instead of leaving the children.

"Taking somebody else's children to a fire station to abandon them, that's not really covered under the Baby Moses Law. The Baby Moses law was intended for a parent who has a newborn baby 0-60 days, gives them that alternative to safely abandon a newborn somewhere versus leaving them in a dangerous place."

CPS says in a case like this they generally try to place the children with a relative, friend, or someone the parent trusts until they finish investigating.