Mom abandons 3-year-old at park after dark as punishment, cops say. Now, she’s charged
A 3-year-old boy was found wandering on a busy road after his mother abandoned him at a nearby park as punishment, Georgia police said.
The 28-year-old woman was arrested and charged with reckless conduct in the July 2 incident in Stone Mountain, according to Gwinnett County police.
She left her child on a bench to “teach him a lesson” before two good Samaritans spotted her son walking alone in the dark near DeShong Park, officers wrote in an incident report.
It was just after 10:30 p.m. when Will Mosley and his wife, Michelle Mosely, were driving and nearly hit someone running in the street.
“I stopped in the middle of the road, turned on flashers and said, ‘Michelle, that’s a baby,’” Mosley told WSB-TV. “If I didn’t find him, he would’ve gotten hit.”
The couple put the child in their car and drove to a gas station, where they called police, officers said.
Soon after, police met with the boy’s mother, who had reported him missing, according to the incident report. She acknowledged ditching the “unruly” toddler at the park to discipline him for his bad behavior earlier that day.
The woman told police she only pretended to leave and drove to the other end of the park. When she returned, her child was gone, according to the report.
“The child got up, ran away as soon as the mother drove off and ended up running into the roadway,” Sgt. Collin Flynn told WAGA. “This was punishment taken to an extreme and constituted reckless conduct.”
Police said it was more than 30 minutes from the time the couple found the toddler to when his mother reported him missing.
The woman’s boyfriend, a 32-year-old man, was also charged with reckless conduct, records show.
The Georgia Division of Family and Children’s Services was contacted and will investigate further, police said.
Stone Mountain is about a 20-mile drive northeast from downtown Atlanta.
This story was originally published July 10, 2024 at 9:29 AM with the headline "Mom abandons 3-year-old at park after dark as punishment, cops say. Now, she’s charged."