The 24-year-old mother was arrested Sunday, June 11, after leaving her 22-month-old alone in a Grovetown apartment, according to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. — Image by stockking on Freepik
A mother is accused of leaving her toddler in a closet with filth and feces while she delivered DoorDash orders, Georgia deputies say.
The 24-year-old mother was arrested Sunday, June 11, after leaving her 22-month-old alone in a Grovetown apartment, according to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
She faces charges of child cruelty and cruelty to animals, online records show.
Deputies responded at about 10pm Saturday after the child’s grandmother told them the boy might be locked in the apartment by himself, deputies said in an incident report.
Her son, the child’s father, told her the mother would lock the toddler a closet for hours while she delivered food from 10am to 3am.
Rescue crews arrived with a ladder after deputies were unable to get the mother on the phone and saw her car was missing from the driveway, the report said. Authorities got in through a patio door and found the child in a bedroom closet with the door closed, deputies said
He was “sleeping on the floor, wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by trash and other small items,” deputies wrote, adding that the baby had bruising and feces in one of his ears.
Authorities went onto describe the “deplorable conditions” inside, including dirty diapers, animal feces and the stench of urine, according to the report.
Multiple animals were also found in the home, including five cats locked in a room without water, a bird, a roaming dog and a tarantula in a container on the kitchen counter, deputies said.
The mom returned just before 4am and was arrested, according to the reported.
Deputies said she showed “no remorse” and told them she left the baby home “because it was not good for his spine to be in a car seat.”
She remained in jail on a S$26,200 bond as of Tuesday, June 13, online records show.
The toddler was placed in the care of his grandmother, authorities said.
Columbia County is about 130 miles east of Atlanta. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service
