A Kampong Chnnang construction worker was surprised to see his 3- and 5-year-old sons on TV on Monday in a news report that they had been abandoned by their parents, left alone for nearly a week in a Phnom Penh rental house.

The father, Snuon Pheng, 29, then rushed to find his kids, who had been taken into the custody of an NGO shelter, he told the Post yesterday.

The boys lived with their mother, Ma Rasmey, 25, in a rental house in Por Sen Chey’s Choam Chao commune while she looked for work. Pheng, who was not currently living at the rental, took whatever construction jobs he could find in the provinces while his family stayed in the capital.

When Rasmey ran out of money and couldn’t pay her rent last week, she allegedly left her kids in the rental house and trekked to her hometown in Kampong Chhhang to beg family members for help.

Va Sarorng, Choam Chao commune deputy chief, said that after discovering the boys had been abandoned with no explanation he sent them to local NGO Ponleu Kuma Organization.

Five days later, the parents together requested to have their children back.

“The parents asked the commune to bring [the boys] back home. We warned them and made them sign a contract not to do that again,” said commune councillor Yong Sam Oeun.