A 2-year-old girl was found inside an unlocked car with a dog and several cockroaches Thursday night, according to police in Florida. A 34-year-old man was arrested soon after and now faces child neglect charges.
A woman called 911 when she saw a girl inside a car in the Publix parking lot in Boynton Beach. When police arrived at about 8:40 p.m., the officer noticed all four windows were slightly opened as the young girl stood in the back seat of the vehicle with a dog beside her. Police opened the unlocked car door and the little girl came to the front seat, where the officer picked her up.
When asked who she was with, the girl pointed to the storefronts in the Publix plaza, according to the report.
Inside the vehicle, police noted the keys were left in the ignition and several cockroaches were seen on the center console and the floor of the vehicle.
At 8:55 p.m., a man identified by police as Mallory Jackson began walking to the car and the little girl pointed to him. The relationship between the two is redacted from the report.
The man knelt down on the ground as he held his stomach, citing a stomach spasm and diabetes as the cause. When police told him he was under arrest, he “suddenly” sat up, “seemingly without any pain and asked why he was being arrested,” an officer wrote.
Police noted that Jackson had a receipt from Publix that said he paid for his items at 8:44 p.m., more than 10 minutes before he arrived at the vehicle.
As of Friday evening, Jackson remained in the Palm Beach County jail on $1,000 bail, according to court records.
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