On February 21st, 2025, officers were called to a store parking lot after someone spotted a small child fast asleep inside a car that was left running with no adult in sight. The situation raised major concerns about the child's safety and the guardian's judgment. What kind of responsible adult treats a running car like a nursery and leaves a child behind as if nothing could possibly go wrong? I mean, we've been out here what over time, 15 minutes. Okay. I was parked here and I was like, "What?" And then I pulled around when I was leaving. I just I thought maybe someone was sitting in the back with her. So, did we 15 minutes? Did you call us or did you Yes, I called. I came I went in. Do you work for Walmart? Oh, okay. No, I I went and got him to stay down with me. Okay. And he said we made the call. So, do you have your ID with you by chance? Uh, yes. Real quick to have rescue. I mean, he was nervous someone would come out while we were standing here. Child sleep. We don't know yet. We don't know. Oh, the door's been open like this. No, I just opened. It's been run and I was just not But the car is unlocked. Um I don't Nobody actually spoke with the child, right? No, she I saw her squirm, you know, rubberized. They didn't want to scare her, so I didn't um The dispatcher said not to try to open the car or anything. Um so you were just shopping when you came out. You were going to get your car and you saw put stuff in my clothes. What? And I said, "Well, let me There was a space here. I was here and there was a space there." I said, "Let me pull around and see. Maybe there's someone sitting in the back seat with her." That's what I thought. I was like, "No way." So, I went in and I found security and um so that's what we called. Okay. Um All right. But you didn't see any adults or anything around. It was just just like No. And this whole thing's been what now? probably 20 minutes and nobody's here. He was afraid someone would come and you know so he wanted to stay with me um in case the driver came by. Hello. Hi. Is this your car? Yes. Is that your daughter? Yes. Okay. Why' you leave your daughter in the car? I've been inside for about 5 minutes. Not Yes. Okay. I just got here. I went inside cuz she was sleeping. Mhm. I had to use the bathroom. You went inside where? Walmart. Why did you just walk from this way? Because I came out that way. I was trying to find my car. Okay. Do you have your ID with you? Um, how old is your daughter? She's seven. Officers found the child in the backseat of the car and gathered all the information about the child from the woman who had called the police. This was an extremely sensitive situation. A mother had left her small child sleeping in the car while she was nowhere to be seen. When she arrived a short while later, she began telling the officer stories, claiming she had only gone inside the Walmart for 5 minutes to use the restroom. But her excuses didn't change the fact that a child was left at risk. I take care of her all by myself. I don't have anybody here. I went inside to use the bathroom. I have not been gone that long. You know, you left your car unlocked. I did. That's why the door's open because I when I got here, I opened the door to see if it was You left your car running with the door unlocked with your child in the back seat. I didn't think it was an issue. I saw myself. I had to go to the bathroom. She's sleeping. Okay. We have conflicting accounts. Um, the person that called us was security and they were dealing with the situation for what they claimed to be almost 20 minutes. I don't know exactly how long it was. I just know I didn't think it was that long. Like I said, I knew she was in the car. I had to go to the bathroom. I was coming to try to find some flea medicine. I didn't find the flea medicine. So, I left my cart. When you see the footage, you'll see I left the cart and everything. I I came back. Okay. Um, okay. This is ridiculous. I don't know. Like, what do you mean it's ridiculous? Because I I I don't know. It's like I'm being treated as if I'm a horrible mother. I went inside really quick. I didn't Nobody's treating you any any different way. I'm asking you questions. No, it's whoever called the cops on me. Like, I just There's a There's a child in a vehicle that's running and unlocked. That's obviously a cause for concern when they're completely by themselves. The windows are clear. I mean, have you have you watched the news? Have you paid attention to anything? Like, things happen where kids get abducted all the time, right? So, who's to say that somebody doesn't walk by, see that she's by herself with no adult supervision, they break a window, they open the door, they take her, she's gone, and we have we're getting a call from you crying because now your child is missing, right? This is why you're saying it's ridiculous, but it's really not because a child should not be left alone in a vehicle running and unlocked. You're right. It's not ridiculous. I guess what I mean is ridiculous. I just I I'm here by myself. I can't ever get a break. I just had to go to the bathroom. I don't have any help. I just I didn't think it was going to be an issue. I I live right there. I was going to come to get the flea medicine. Then I had to go to the bathroom and I was going to leave. That's why I'm here. I I couldn't find my car. I left the keys in here so that she could, you know, so just a a word for the future, right? In the future, if this situation ever presents itself again, I will wake her up. You need to wake her up and bring her with you. Okay? Doesn't mean that this is over with yet. I still have to figure out what we're going to be doing with it. and then we will go from there. Okay. The woman kept saying she was only gone for 5 minutes, but security footage showed she was actually away for more than 25. She deserved a serious penalty, not only for lying, but also for leaving her child alone like that. Maybe she thought a few lies would save her from the consequences. But reality had other plans. Next time, she might want to think twice before leaving a child alone. So, when you first walked up, you told me that you were inside the store for 5 minutes. According to the video, you walked in at 7:06 and you walked out at 7:32, which is 20, what is that? 26 minutes that you were inside the store. A little different than 5 minutes. Well, I knew it obviously wasn't 5 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes to walk from here to there. So, I didn't think exactly 5 minutes, but I didn't think I was gone for that long. Would you would you agree with me that 26 minutes is excessive? Yes. Um, okay. I was shopping around. I know I got lost a few times. I was trying to find vitamins. cuz I think that's another reason why it took so long to cart. So, and this is my other issue, right? You told me initially that you went in there to use the bathroom. Now, you're saying that you were shopping, right? Well, I I did say I was trying to find the flea treatment. I left it. That's why I left the cart. I was very discombobulated when I saw everyone. So, that's that's what I said initially. What do you mean you saw everyone? Like when I saw like you and then there was a lady here. Like there was a lot of people here. So initially like I you know I was very jumbled discombobulated but I did say that I was trying to find prele free treatment I didn't find it so I ended up putting the cart back but I didn't you know I didn't tell you in detail everything okay at that moment. Yes. All right. Um, you said your mom is in Miami and does your has does does your daughter ever stay with your mom? She does. Okay. Um, I'm going to be straight up with you. All right. I don't want to beat around the bush. Um, I hope that by me doing this, you'll respect it and understand that I have a job to do. Um, and that you're not going to cause problems or make this situation worse, right? Cuz it's already bad enough, right? You need to call your mom or her dad or somebody to come and pick her up. If they're not able to, then we're gonna have to call DCF and have them come out and pick her up. Can you start working on that? Why? In the state of Florida, child neglect is a felony, leaving a 7-year-old unattended in an unlocked and running vehicle with the keys in it. It was extremely important to provide the woman with all the necessary information so she could fully understand the seriousness of the situation and the mistake she had made. But how can someone not realize that leaving a child alone in a running car isn't just risky? It's reckless. Only by knowing the full consequences could she begin to grasp the weight of her actions. To go shopping for 26 minutes would constitute neglect. So, I'm getting arrested. Yes. I'm not physically going to put you in handcuffs in front of her. I'm going to try to avoid that as long as you're cooperative. There's no misdemeanor or a ticket or something you can give me. No, I'm going to try and do this as calmly as possible so that she is not harmed by this process any more than she needs to be. Okay? As long as you're cooperative with me, that's how it's going to go. If at any point in time you change your tone or your demeanor or you start going against what I'm asking of you, then that's when things are going to change and I'm going to be forced to handle this differently. My mom is 33 weeks pregnant. She is high risk. You don't understand how alone I am here. Okay. You have to arrest me. There's nothing else you can do. There's no there's nothing. I can't. There's a reason I'm here alone. There's a reason she's not going with her dad this weekend. There's a reason my mom's not taking here this weekend. I do it by myself. I understand that. So I So how do I get her back? That'll be through the court process. How long am I going to be in jail? Um, I'm most likely just overnight to get booked in. You get a bond. Once you pay the bond, you get out. And when I get out, I can't see her. That's not up to me to determine. That would be up to the judge. The judge at first appearance will determine whether or not you should have contact. and if you do have contact, what kind of contact that is, whether it's unrestricted, whether it's supervised or however it's going to go from there. But that's not for me to decide. So, are you able to call either mom or her dad or another family member or somebody that you would trust with her? Cuz if not, then I need to start my process of getting somebody here. The woman's emotional behavior and please for sympathy weren't going to save her from jail. If officers started releasing people just because they got emotional, then half the jails would be empty by now. Next time she might want to bring a lawyer instead of a drama script. You're George. Okay. Do you have your ID with you by chance? Yeah. Pardon me. Um she'll be able to explain it to you at a later time. Uh but we at least appreciate you helping facilitate the understand the main issue is if somebody wasn't available then she would end up going to DCF and we were trying to avoid that. Um, I didn't trust me. I I went through the DCF, but I not Yeah, this be a little bit of a different process with DCF. You're definitely going to be involved in this afterwards, but um, the fact that she's kind of by herself is more complicates matters. So, you being able to do this helps to alleviate a little bit of the the difficulty. So, um yeah, I I'll let her give you whatever she needs. Uh thank you temporary or whatever. But, um and then I'll let you guys get out of here. My main thing is I didn't want to be put in her hand. Yeah. Um, I wanted her to be out of here. No, that's nice. So, I'm trying to make this as easy as possible given the circumstance. Um, so obviously I know it's going to be tough to get away, but um, yeah. So, I'll tell her now. I just want to All right. If you can put your hands behind your back. at our house. If you keep your palms like facing each other, it's going to be the most comfortable for you. [Music] Just be careful cuz it's a seat is hard plastic. So, if you lean back against it, it's going to be difficult. Um, I'm gonna leave your phone in your pocket. Okay. There's there is there any other coordination that you have to do in order for George and Jazelle to meet up or they are going to be able to handle it all themselves? Okay. Um, is there anybody that you need to or want to call uh in order to facilitate on? No, he's got a couple of days. He's going to do take care of it. Okay. Um, all right. I'm going to leave your phone in your pocket. Please don't do anything stupid, okay? I'm trying to give you some respect here. You've done amazing. Um I It's a shitty situation, but I also want you to understand the gravity of it. And I'm also here because I'm doing my a job, right? the the the sad scary thing, right? Where I look at this and maybe you're going to call me paranoid cuz you already went that route with with other sad stuff. But if I were like, you know what, I think everything's fine and she's going to be good, right? And I let you drive away from here and like two weeks down the road I see in the news that the child got abducted and it was her and it was the same type of story. When the news starts digging into stuff, they'll see that your name was in a report for the same thing. And I was like, "You know what? I think she's okay." And I let you walk away. Guess what happens to me? I've been a cop for 15 years. So, I have a retirement, right? I lose that. I go to jail, right? Yeah. I get it. Things are in place. You know, at the end of all this, do I think you're a bad mother? Absolutely not. Okay. I understand it's difficult. I'm going through the same very similar situation. Luckily, his mom is more involved. But at the end of the day, I don't think you're a bad parent. I think you made a mistake. And I hope that at the end of this process that there's some sort of education provided to you to or other resources that are provided to you to help you in what you're going through. Okay. After the formal legal procedure, transferring the woman to jail was absolutely necessary so she could face the consequences of her actions. The officers handled the situation as early as possible and responded quickly at the scene, saving the child's life in time. A truly commendable effort. Who knew a fast police response and a slow parent could create such a dramatic plot twist? She was officially charged with child neglect. 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