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Mom jailed for leaving kids alone
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Posted on Apr 23 2002
A 22-year-old woman who has a reported history of leaving her minor children unattended was booked and jailed Friday after authorities caught her, this time on the alleged act of leaving her kids inside a taxi cab while she played poker in San Antonio.
Public Safety spokesperson Lt. Pete C. Muña reported that police officer Anthony Campos discovered the two unsupervised children—aged five years and two months old—inside the taxi parked in front of the Sunleader store.
The older female child was occupying the front passenger’s seat while the infant was in a carrier in the back seat, Muña noted.
Both children were reportedly sweating inside the vehicle, with the car windows rolled down.
Asked where her mother was, the little girl, at first, declined to say a word. But when Campos inquired for her mother’s name, it was then that the child replied.
In search for their mother, the officer entered the Sunleader store using the name the little girl had supplied him, but no woman by that name was at the store, Muña quoted a police report.
When Campos proceeded to the poker establishment adjacent to the store, he saw a lone female playing poker inside.
According to Muña, as the woman saw the officer approach her, she immediately withdrew her credit points.
The woman later confirmed her identity to Campos and added that the children inside the taxi cab indeed belonged to her.
Muña said the woman pleaded with the officer to give her another chance.
But Campos put her under arrest and transported her to the Police Central Station.
The Division of Youth Services, who were summoned for assistance, took the children while their mother was detained at the Division of Corrections.
As it turned out, the woman received numerous warnings before against leaving her children unattended.
Barely a month ago, she found herself in a similar fix. Her own husband even reported her to authorities, complaining that she allegedly left their three children all alone inside their Susupe apartment while she played poker.
