MADISON, Ohio — A 33-year-old woman in Madison, Ohio, was arrested and charged with child endangerment on Sunday after allegedly leaving her 5-month-old baby in a car outside a Walmart for more than two hours.
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The Madison Township Police Department said that it received a call just before 1 p.m. on Sunday reporting an infant left unattended in a vehicle outside the Walmart Supercenter at 6067 Northridge road after a shopper parked next to the vehicle heard the baby crying.
Upon arriving, the Madison Township Police and Fire Department found a five-month-old baby in a car seat inside the car, which was not running and had one window slightly down. The baby was slightly sweating and her diaper and pants were saturated with the temperature recorded as more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
With no items for child care located in the vehicle, a shopper in the parking lot supplied a diaper and cleaning supplies so that the baby could be changed and Walmart donated a bottle of formula to feed the baby. Officers eventually located the baby's mother, who appeared to "be impaired due to some sort of drug or medication," inside the Walmart.
The woman, a resident of Madison, told officers that she was unaware of how long she had been inside the store and that she was unsure of where her child was. Security footage showed that she had parked the vehicle and entered the store at 10:52 a.m. and that officers located her in the store at 1:04 p.m.
A responsible family member was contacted to come to the scene and take care of the baby and Lake County Job and Family Services was also contacted on the matter. The woman was transported to the Lake County Jail for incarceration and later posted a $574.00 bond to be released. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Painesville Municipal Court at 8:30 a.m. on September 28, 2021.