Mother Arrested After Children Found Locked in SUV

A Milton woman was arrested in Alpharetta after her 5- and 2-year-old children were left in the family's SUV in a store parking lot in 92-degree heat on Tuesday, July 24.

A passerby stopped an Alpharetta police officer patrolling at 3:38 p.m. and asked him to check on a black Honda Pilot that she believed had small children locked inside.

The officer spotted two unattended children inside the SUV. The vehicle was not running, and only one window was cracked open a half inch. The young children were crying and sweating. The older of the two children, who appeared to be 4-5 years old, at first didn't want to open the locked door to a stranger. Alpharetta Fire was alerted to come to the scene, but the older child was able to unlock the door for the officer.

The officer immediately took the two small children into his patrol car with its air conditioning on maximum power, and gave them water.

"As I picked up both children from inside the SUV, both children were sweating profusely and both children's shirts and shorts were soaking wet with sweat. I then contacted Alpharetta Dispatch for a temperature reading and was advised the current temperature was 92 degrees," the officer said in his report.

Another officer asked the child in what store was his mother or rather, and he said the fabric store. The mother was found in the store and brought outside. According to the incident report, the mother said she didn't think it was such a big deal that she left her children in the car because she was only gone for 10 minutes. The officer said he had been on scene for more than 10 minutes, so it was longer than that. She told him that she left the children in the car because they were asleep and she didn't want to wake them.

The mother was arrested for two counts of reckless conduct and was taken to Fulton County Jail. The Department of Family and Child Services was contacted about the incident.

The children's father was called, and he came to the Alpharetta Department of Public Safety building to pick up his children and the keys to the SUV.

The arrest information was supplied by the Alpharetta Department of Public Safety. It does not indicate a conviction.