A Florence woman was arrested after police said she left a 1-week-old child and a 1-year-old child unattended in a car because she had to go to Wal-Mart, Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.
Samantha Eliane Mitchell, 22, of 76 Angle Road is charged with unlawful neglect of a child, Florence County Detention Center booking reports show.
The incident happened Wednesday at the Wal-Mart SuperCenter on South Irby Street when someone discovered two small children alone in a running car, Raines said. The children were in car seats, but the seats weren’t properly installed .
At some point, the suspect walked out of the store and told police they were her children and that she had only gone in the store for a few minutes to speak to her sister at the McDonald’s restaurant inside the Wal-Mart, Raines said. Police asked to see the woman’s identification and discovered her driver’s license was suspended.
A state Department of Social Services agent also responded to the scene and scheduled a site visit for the home where the family lived, Raines said.
Mitchell was released Friday from the jail in Effingham, but bond information wasn’t available.
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