Tot found in van at strip club returns home

A 1½-year-old boy left in a car seat for three hours outside a western Wisconsin strip club is out of the hospital and back with his mother, and child neglect charges were being considered Friday against his father.

David F. Mantor, of Maplewood, was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of leaving his son in a locked van for more than three hours outside the Cajun Club in Houlton, Wis.

Mantor, 45, had told his wife he was going to the grocery store for milk, authorities said.

He will appear in St. Croix County Court in February, said Clerk of Court Lori Meyer. She said the district attorney's office was reviewing possible charges.

Mantor was unavailable to comment on Friday. A woman at Mantor's house who identified herself as his wife said he wasn't home.

"We have some issues to work through, but we're not bad people," she said.

The manager of the Cajun Club called authorities after a customer noticed the boy strapped into a car seat in the van in the club's parking lot. The boy was wearing a coat but appeared to have suffered frostbite on his face, said St. Croix County Sheriff Dennis Hillstead.

The temperature was about 30 degrees at the time but the child was awake, Hillstead said.

Tess Ross, manager of the Cajun Club, said a customer heard the boy crying. Mantor had spent at least three hours in the club drinking and watching strippers, she said.

Houlton is across the St. Croix River from Stillwater.

Investigators notified child protection services in St. Croix County. On Friday, Ramsey County had no record of child protection cases involving the family.

KEVIN GILES