Mom leaves 7-month-old in running car in parking garage while she goes to work, cops say

A Texas mother left her baby alone in the car in a parking garage while she reported for her shift at a hospital, authorities said.

Police responded the morning of Sept. 6 to reports of a child locked inside a vehicle on the fourth floor of the hospital parking garage, according to a Sept. 9 news release from the Texarkana Texas Police Department.

Nurses and security officers at the scene told police they noticed the car’s motor running and then saw a baby alone inside, sitting in a car seat, authorities said.

Bystanders were able to get into the car through a window that was cracked open and got the 7-month-old out, police said. The baby had been in the car for about 45 minutes, according to police.

As officers were attempting to figure out who owned the vehicle, a woman showed up and identified herself as the owner and the baby’s mother, according to authorities.

McClatchy News is not naming the woman to protect the identity of the child.

The mother said she couldn’t find a babysitter that morning, so she left her daughter in the car while “she went into the hospital to report for her work shift and talk to her supervisor,” police said.

The woman was arrested on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child and booked into the Bi-State Jail, according to authorities. She was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bond, police said.

Child Protective Services took custody of the baby, police said.

Texarkana is about a 180-mile drive northeast from Dallas. It has a twin city just over the state border in Arkansas.

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