Alabama teen found riding on box atop van; mother charged

By Associated Press

For The AJC

ALBERTVILLE, Ala.  --  An Alabama woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after police say she let her daughter ride in a box on top of their van.

Albertville Police spokesman Sgt. Jamie Smith said 37-year-old Jackie Denise Knott was arrested Sunday after police received a call of a minivan traveling on U.S. 431 with a large cardboard box on top with a child inside.

Smith said the woman told police the box was too big to go inside the van, and that her daughter was inside the box to hold it down.

Smith said Knott told officers it was safe because she had the box secured to the van with a clothes hanger.

"The box was too large to get in the van, so more or less, she needed a paperweight," said Albertville Police Officer Jamie Smith.

The child was not hurt. She was turned over to a relative's custody at the scene and DHR is investigating.

"For the child's sake, more than anything, nothing turned out bad," Smith said. "Obviously a gust of wind, an 18-wheeler passing by could have thrown the box off the top of the van. It could have turned out very bad."