I don’t think I’ve ever left my kids in my car unattended for any amount of time because I am always a paranoid. I, however, do know people who would leave a sleeping baby in the car if they needed to run in to a store quickly to grab something, locking the car and leaving it in their sight line the entire time.
While it’s not something that I would do, I think it’s a fine line to have someone arrested if they chose to do it!
That’s exactly where a new mom in Virginia finds herself after she left her sleeping baby in her car to run into a local convenience store to grab a quick donut, which took her all of 3 minutes.
A few months ago, Heather DeStein a 28-year-old Mom to a then 3-month-old daughter Reilly, had the worst day possible.
According to Scary Mommy, the new Mother was battling postpartum depression as well as the exhaustion and sleeplessness that only other new moms can really and truly understand.
After a bad night’s sleep and very early morning wake up with Reilly, she put her daughter in her car seat to drive her fiance to his work.
When Reilly thankfully fell asleep in the car while driving, DeStein decided to take advantage.
It was cold outside and much warmer in the car, so DeStein made the decision to leave her sleeping infant in the warmth of her car while she made a quick run into her local Wawa to grab herself a doughnut.
The Mom said she parked her car directly in front of the not busy store so she could have eyes on it at all times.
Unfortunately for Heather, when she returned from the store, a visit that Wawa security cameras say took her approximately 3 minutes, a man was standing by her car.
“You know there’s a baby in there, right?” he said.
“Yes, I was gone for like three minutes,” she said according to Scary Mommy.
“All the man did was ask for my ID and go sit in his car, which was parked two down from me, and sat there. Fifteen minutes later he came back to get some info about my address.” She then stated the man said to her, “It’s freezing out here. You should know better.”
“I started crying. I was freaked out. I said, ‘Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.’ That sort of thing. I was trying to cooperate in hopes he would let me go with a warning. There’s no law against what I did. I was in shock about the whole thing.”
Then another officer arrived, lectured the new mom about how her baby should be her ‘third appendage’ and she was eventually arrested, but released to the custody of her fiance after he picked her up.
A CPS file was then opened on her which has subsequently been closed and dismissed.
While CPS has dismissed their case against DeStein, she is still facing charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child, a charge that many are raising eyebrows against, since there is no law about leaving your child alone in a car in Virginia unless it’s hot.
In her defence, she didn’t think or know that she was breaking a law by leaving her child in the car.
DeStein is clearly mortified about the whole ordeal and has reportedly taken a parenting course with her lawyer hoping to get the case dismissed.
“I’m trying to just get this over and done,” she said. “I know I’m going to probably end up with this misdemeanor on my record. I just want it to go away.”
What are your thoughts on this?