Have the nominees for this year's Darwin Awards been announced yet? Because this guy is a prime contender for Idiot of the Year.
A man in Arizona has been arrested after he left his 5-year-old granddaughter in a parking lot with a .45 calibre handgun, telling her to 'shoot any bad guys' while he went 'for a few drinks and a cheeseburger'.
The child was found with the gun - which was loaded and cocked, by the way - under a tree in the desert after she was reported missing. Paul Armand Rater, 53, had picked up the child on Sunday afternoon and said that he left her in the desert with the gun because his pick-up truck had broken down, and she was complaining that she couldn't walk any further.
Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio said: "She was given the gun and told to shoot any bad guys. I don’t know how a five-year-old can tell a good guy from a bad guy but that’s what she said she was told.“
Rater was found by police at a store and charged with two counts of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment.
