Police say Arkansas woman left 1 month old baby in hot car to go shoplift
JONESBORO AR Oct 19 2017 — A Jonesboro woman who police say left her 1-month-old baby in a hot car while she shoplifted clothes at a department store faces a felony child endangerment charge.
Sabrina Phommarath, 19, was charged Monday with first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and shoplifting less than $1,000 worth of merchandise.
According to a police report filed by Jonesboro police officer Blake Anderson, Anderson was called to Dillard’s in the Turtle Creek Mall for a suspected shoplifter.
When Anderson arrived, a mall security officer said he found a 1-month-old boy inside Phommarath’s locked vehicle in the mall parking lot.
Another officer opened the vehicle with a key taken from Phommarath, Anderson said in the report.
“The inside of the vehicle was hot and [the child] was warm to the touch and appeared to be sweating,” Anderson wrote in his report.
After reviewing video taken from a parking lot security camera, police determined Phommarath had left her child inside the car for more than 40 minutes.
A witness told police she saw Phommarath enter a Dillard’s changing room with three pairs of pants and a shirt and leave later with only two pairs of pants. A store security officer stopped Phommarath and recovered the stolen items.
Caseworkers with the Department of Human Services’ Division of Children and Family Services took custody of the child.
