GLENDALE, Colo. -- He was given $20 to watch his girlfriend's daughter and feed her dinner.

But instead of taking care of the toddler, the 20-year-old man left the girl unattended in the car while he spent the cash tipping topless dancers at a strip club, police said.

Alan Baxter, was arrested Saturday evening inside Shotgun Willie's strip club on Colorado Boulevard.

"Instead of going to dinner, he went down and parked his vehicle in a parking lot close to the strip club. (Baxter) left the girl unattended in the vehicle, and went inside the strip club," said Glendale Chief of Police Victor Ross.

Police say Baxter parked at Fascinations, left his girlfriend's three-year-old in the car and walked over to Shotgun's. Police found the girl "afraid" and cowering in the backseat. They found Baxter inside the club with a wad of 16 one-dollar bills.

"We found out at that point that he was underage as well," said Ross. Baxter is three weeks shy of 21.

Shotgun Willie's said a host mistakenly allowed Baxter into the club. Shotgun's management said in a statement, "The ramifications of this miscalculation were the termination of not only the host that committed the error but the manager on duty as well."

The story has parents scratching their heads.

"He didn't have any business being there in the first place. But, just the fact that he left the child in the car alone and then went into a strip club is appalling," said one parent.

"First of all, just leaving a baby in the car by themselves, period, is completely frightening to me. And then the idea that it was a strip club, even worse," said another parent.

Police say Baxter did cooperate.

Police were called to the area by the manager of a nearby porn store, who saw the girl sitting by herself in a locked car. The manager of Fascinations said the girl looked afraid and seemed to "cower" in the rear seat, according to a police report obtained by 7NEWS.

The officer noted that there was no food or water in the car. It was 50 degrees outside and it may have been even colder in the car, where the window on the driver's side was down about three inches, the officer said.

The porn store manager said he had seen the driver of the car walk into the strip club about a half-hour earlier.

Police questioned a man inside Shotgun Willie's who fit the description of the driver and then arrested Baxter on suspicion of child neglect.

Baxter's girlfriend told police that she had given him $20 to watch her daughter while she was at work.

The woman and her daughter were later reunited at the police station. The woman was very upset, according to police

Watch for more on this story on 7NEWS at 10 p.m.