Is this about the only way shoplifters would actually get prosecuted in some areas?
A woman in Central Florida decided to shoplift in a Dillard’s but didn’t want to bring her two children inside the store. Instead, on the afternoon of May 29 she left the kids in her Lincoln as she and a male companion went inside, spending about an hour shoplifting, according to the Miami Herald. As she was about to leave the store, the woman spotted her car “engulfed in flames” and dropped everything she planned to steal, running out to her children.
Watch a grown man attack teenagers in a Florida road rage incident here.
Some Good Samaritans saw the fire and the children strapped in, helping the kids to get out. Firefighters arrived to assess the situation and the juveniles were transported to a hospital for treatment of first-degree burns, according to NBC News. The fact they escaped relatively unscathed is quite frankly a miracle.
We know what you’re thinking: give this woman the Mother of the Year award. We’re sure she cares about her kids, but she didn’t care enough about them to make better life decisions and to keep them entirely out of harm’s way.
Thankfully, those bystanders got the kids out of the car so they weren’t seriously hurt or killed. But the children also could’ve been kidnapped as they sat alone in the vehicle in a parking lot for an hour. And in the Florida heat, they could easily pass away as the interior temperatures skyrocketed. Leaving children unattended in a car isn’t what a responsible parent does for so many reasons.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. It could’ve been the result of improper maintenance, something the kids did while sitting unsupervised, or we’ve seen things like water bottles start vehicle fires (believe it or not).
As for the mother, she was arrested and will have her day in court soon. The Miami Herald says she has a lengthy criminal history and Fox 36 Orlando reports she had an active warrantn.
