Ex-NFL star Antonio Brown is offering refunds to kindhearted people who donated $80,000 to a man who left his three kids at a Georgia McDonald’s.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in Augusta said Chris Louis lied about going to a job interview when he left his children – ages 10, 6, and 1 – at a McDonald’s indoor play area on March 22.
Concerned customers notified McDonald’s employees that three children appeared to be abandoned at the restaurant.
Louis’s 10-year-old daughter told police her father said he was going to drop off a backpack someplace when he left her in charge of her younger siblings at the restaurant.
She told police her father often left them alone for extended periods of time.
The daughter called her mother, who arrived at the McDonald’s about 6:12 p.m. The children’s mother called Louis, who said he was on his way back.
He arrived 6 minutes later still carrying the black backpack. He said he had gone to a hotel next door to fill out an application. But a hotel employee told police there were no interviews scheduled that day.
Louis told police he “lost his ID and another card and had been retracing his steps to find them.”
Deputies arrested Louis and he was charged with misdemeanor deprivation of a child.
Antonio Brown and several other athletes contributed to a GoFundMe created by Brown to help the Louis family.
Brown disabled the GoFundMe account. He says the $80,000 in donations “will remain on hold” and he is offering refunds.
Brown said he is withholding the money from Louis to “make sure it’s for a good cause.”
Among those who have donated money to Louis are Brown ($1,084), ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit ($1,000) and Chris “Swaggy C” Williams, a YouTuber, who donated $2,000.
