A woman who chose her soda over her toddler when she tried to escape an accusation of shoplifting by a Wal-Mart employee has been banned from having unsupervised contact with children, including her own, The Macon Telegraph reported.
Ashley Lynn Heichelbech, 25, pleaded guilty to shoplifting and criminal attempt to commit cruelty to a child Friday in Bibb County Superior Court.
She was sentenced to five years on probation and 180 days in a detention center. As a special condition of probation, Heichelbech must complete a nine-to 12-month drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.
When approached by store workers last year, Heichelbech looked at them for a moment, then grabbed a bottle of soda from her cart and took off running, leaving her child behind, The Telegraph reported.
In keeping with Wal-Mart policy, the workers didn’t chase Heichelbech, watching as she ran.
“They kept waiting on the defendant to realize she’s run off without her child and turn around and come back,” prosecutor Nancy Scott Malcor said. “She did not.”
Heichelbech was arrested the following day at a nearby gas station, the paper reported.
For more on the story go to The Telegraph.
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