A California man was arrested earlier this week on child endangerment charges after he paid a homeless woman $20 to watch his 7-year-old granddaughter while he got drunk at a bar.

Jason Warren, 54, later told a reporter that the woman “looked like a decent person,” KTXL reported.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies said they were called to the parking lot of a bar shortly before 8 p.m. on Monday by a passerby who said that Warren was seeking “help because his 7-year-old granddaughter had been kidnapped for human trafficking.” Deputies contacted Warren and reported that he was “highly intoxicated.”

Warren told the deputies he had given an unknown woman $20 to take the girl to a nearby thrift store while he went to a bar — about four hours earlier. When he came out, he couldn’t find them.

Deputies located surveillance footage showing the woman leaving the area with the little girl and deployed a helicopter, drones, and K9s in a search for her. The woman heard public address announcements from the helicopter and returned to the parking lot with the girl about a half hour later.

She told deputies that Warren was highly intoxicated when he gave her the $20 and that “she did not think he could care for the child.” She said she took the girl to her “camp” for food.

The little girl corroborated the woman’s statement and was not in distress. Medics cleared her, and she was returned to her aunt, who had full custody of the child and had asked Warren to watch her while she went to work.

KTXL identified the woman as Lauren Jope, who told the station she was confused at first.

“I was like, ‘Okay that’s a big thing … you don’t know who I am,’ but I knew that she would be safe with me,” Jope said.

“She wasn’t scared at all and it seemed like maybe something that had maybe happened before,” she said.

Sgt. Amar Gandhi from the sheriff’s office told KTXL that Jope had been “a guardian angel.”

Warren, meanwhile, told the station from jail that he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong and would do it again.

“She was about 28 to 30 years old,” Warren said. “I knew, I could tell by her character that she seemed like a decent person. I trusted her like I would trust my sister or my cousin.”

Warren seemed surprised when told by a reporter he’d been in the bar for four hours. He claimed he had car trouble and went into the bar to call for help because his cell phone battery was dead.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “Everything I did I told God about and I said, ‘It’s your will God, not my will. Let your will be done.’”

Warren was given a $75,000 bond and released on Wednesday. He is due in court again on May 29, jail records show.

For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.

[Featured image: KTXL screenshot]