A Butler father is accused of leaving his two small children home alone this week to go to the bank.

At the bank, city police said, 34-year-old Kevin E. Franklin forged and cashed a check belonging to the children’s mother.

Police on Wednesday obtained an arrest warrant for Franklin on a felony charge of forgery and misdemeanor charges of child endangerment and theft.

Nicole McCabe, the mother of the children, ages 2 and 3, told police she had left the toddlers with the defendant at his home on North Elm Street about noon.

When she returned four hours later, she found the front door locked and her two sons in their play pens. But Franklin was not there, according to court documents.

Police did not know how long the children had been left unsupervised.

McCabe eventually learned that Franklin had gone to the NexTier bank branch in downtown Butler, which McCabe contacted. The bank informed her that the defendant had been there just before 4 p.m. and cashed one of her checks for $400, police said.

McCabe stopped at the bank and obtained a copy of the check, documents said, which was made out to cash. Franklin’s signature was on the back.

She told investigators, that “she did not complete the check,” according to a police affidavit, “and that (Franklin) had to have forged her signature on the check,” police said.