Authorities in Florida have brought charges against a mother after she allegedly left her three young children alone in a hot car and went shopping.
Per PEOPLE, the incident occurred on September 14. The woman, identified as Ciera Washington, 29, left her children in the car and went shopping with a friend at a Walmart in the city of Sunrise.
A passerby saw the children after hearing a “faint” knocking from the car’s trunk, the criminal complaint stated.
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“When he looked inside the back seat of the vehicle, he noticed two empty car seats, and a child’s foot sticking out of the opening of the back seat that led to the trunk of the vehicle,” the complaint said.
The man as well as another person eventually found Washington’s children in the car’s trunk after they managed to access the vehicle, the complaint said, adding that the engine was not running and the windows were not rolled down.
The complaint also stated that the children were “drenched in sweat and hot” while the two younger siblings “had full diapers and feces on their legs.”
Authorities were ultimately notified about the incident, and the passeby went inside the store with Washington’s oldest child to try and find their mother.
Sunrise Police Department officers who arrived at the scene took a look at surveillance footage and determined that Washington was inside the store for 39 minutes, and her children were left alone in the car during that period.
Washington is said to have told the officers that she and her friend went to the store to buy household products, and her oldest child had the keys to the car when she left them. She also said the car’s air conditioner was running at the time.
Washington also told the officers that she made a mistake, and she delayed at the store because of long queues, PEOPLE reported. The 29-year-old was arrested and slapped with three charges of child neglect without causing great bodily harm. She was later released after posting bail the same day.
READ ALSO: Child services worker charged in death of 3-year-old foster child who was left in hot car
