PHOENIX An Arizona grandfather has been arrested and accused of leaving his five-year-old granddaughter alone in the desert with a loaded and cocked .45-caliber handgun and the instruction to "shoot any bad guys," authorities said on Monday. 
 
 Paul Armand Rater, 53, was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix on suspicion of two counts of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment stemming from incident on Sunday night. 
 
 Deputies said he and the child left their home in Buckeye, about 30 miles (48 km) west of Phoenix, in a pickup truck early on Sunday afternoon and that the girl was reported missing four hours later. 
 
 She was eventually located in the desert by her mother and an off-duty firefighter. The child was holding the powerful pistol. 
 
 "She was given the gun and told to shoot any bad guys," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told Reuters by telephone. "I don't know how a five-year-old can tell a good guy from a bad guy, but that's what she said she was told." 
 
 Rater was later located at a store where he told deputies the vehicle had broken down and that he had left the girl under a tree in the desert because she was complaining she could not walk anymore, court records showed. 
 
 He admitted leaving the girl with his gun, "while he went for a few drinks and a cheeseburger," the sheriff's office said. 
 
 The child was returned to her mother and state child welfare authorities were alerted, the sheriff's office said. 
 
 (Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sandra Maler) ||||| BUCKEYE - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has arrested a Buckeye man for leaving his granddaughter alone and with a gun in the desert near Rainbow Valley. 
 
 According to MCSO, 62-year-old Paul Rater and his granddaughter left his home in Buckeye on Sunday to go for a ride in the washes. Four hours later the family reported the two missing. 
 
 A firefighter on an ATV eventually heard the little girl crying for help. 
 
 "I don't know why papa left me, I was calling for him," quoted Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the little girl. 
 
 Rater left his granddaughter with a loaded and cocked .45 caliber handgun. 
 
 "He told her it was to shoot the bad guys. How does a 5-year-old know the difference between good guys and bad guys?," said Arpaio. 
 
 The Sheriff says Rater was found off Miller Road where he'd been having a few drinks and a cheeseburger. He said he walked for hours to get help after his truck broke down, but deputies say Rater never asked anyone for help or even mentioned the little girl. 
 
 The little girl was returned to her mother and the Department of Child Safety was notified. 
 
 Rater was booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on two counts of child abuse and one count of child endangerment.
– After downing a cheeseburger and a handful of drinks Sunday evening, Paul Rater called home and ordered his wife to come get him, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says, per the Arizona Republic. But instead of his wife showing up at the South Buckeye Equestrian Center, the cops did—and hauled him into a Maricopa County jail on child endangerment and abuse charges for allegedly leaving his 5-year-old granddaughter alone in the desert with a peculiar and perilous set of instructions. "She was given [a] gun and told to shoot any bad guys," Sheriff Joe Arpaio tells Reuters. "I don't know how a 5-year-old can tell a good guy from a bad guy, but that's what she said she was told." Deputies say the girl had been reported missing about four hours after she went out Sunday afternoon with her grandpa in his pickup truck. It's unclear whether the truck broke down or somehow became stuck; Rater says he didn't have his cellphone on him, couldn't call for help, and started walking. The 53-year-old says his granddaughter started to complain she couldn't go further, so he left her under a tree with a .45-caliber handgun that was both loaded and cocked, per Reuters. An off-duty firefighter and the girl's grandmother found her during a frantic search; she was holding the weapon with "one round in the chamber and the hammer locked back," per a police statement. Workers at the equestrian center (a bar/restaurant/feed store) say when Rater arrived he did gripe about having to walk out of the desert but made no reference to the girl. "He came across multiple people and never thought he should call 911," deputies say in the statement. Bond for Rater was set at $25,000 on Monday, per KPHO. The girl has been returned to her mother, ABC15 notes. (Young children with guns almost never ends well.)