Authorities in Georgia arrested and charged a 36-year-old woman after a viral video showed her 12-year-old son inside the trunk of a passenger vehicle that was being driven on the roadway. Per Atlanta News First, the suspect, identified as Diana Denise Shaffer, has since been charged with reckless conduct and a seat belt violation.
In a statement, the Gwinnett County Police said a woman on February 25 filed a report about a video she had seen on social media. The video in question showed a minor in the trunk of a Dodge car that was moving on a roadway. Besides the minor, there was also a large object in the trunk of the passenger car, the statement said, adding that the license plate was out-of-state.
An investigation into the case was subsequently launched, and authorities ultimately spotted the same car around Pleasant Hill Road and Shackleford Road on February 26.
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“The detective identified the registered owner and met with her on February 27 at her home in Duluth,” the statement said. “The item in the trunk was a baby bassinet recently purchased through an online marketplace advertisement, and the child (boy, age 12) was sitting in the trunk to help hold the item in place.”
Shaffer was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail that same day, and a family member was subsequently granted temporal custody of her son until she bonded out of jail the following day, the statement said.
This incident comes after a Detroit aunt was similarly arrested and charged after her nieces and nephew were spotted hanging out of her car windows while she was driving. The suspect, identified as Ashjunaria Virginia Townsend, also filmed the February 10 incident, FOX 2 Detroit reported.
Two of the female minors seen hanging out of Townsend’s car windows are both aged 10 while the other girl is 9 years old. The suspect’s nephew is 5 years old. The suspect, who was ultimately arrested on February 19, has since been charged with second-degree child abuse and reckless driving.
Despite expressing regret over her actions, Townsend said she was driving at only 2 miles per hour when the minors were hanging out of her car windows.
