A Florida mother is facing child neglect charges after she allegedly left her children alone in a vehicle while she visited a friend at a bar, according to the West Melbourne Police Department.
Jamie Leigh Gunn, 33, was found inside Penny Annie’s Bar in the eastern Florida town on Sunday. Prior to finding her there, a West Melbourne police officer was conducting a regular business patrol of the lot behind the bar.
He saw a black SUV parked there. Upon inspection of the unlocked, running vehicle, he found a 2-year-old and an 8-month-old baby asleep in the backseat. Gunn is the registered owner of the vehicle.
“The investigation revealed she had been inside the establishment for at least 20 minutes,” and the department said “she was more concerned about going to jail,” than she was about the welfare of her children.
She was arrested and taken to the Brevard County Jail, where she was held on $15,000. As of Wednesday, she had been released.
“The children were turned over to a family member and the Department of Children and Families was notified to conducted a follow-up investigation,” said police. They also said that Gunn has a criminal history that includes contempt of court, forgery, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving while license suspended.
According to the National Safety Council, 28 deaths linked to children dying in hot cars have been reported so far in 2023 and nearly every state in the U.S. has experienced one such death since 1998.
In 2021, Audacy reported on 14 child deaths related to hot cars. This year, there was also report of a babysitter arrested in Florida after leaving an infant in a hot car for hours and the death of a toddler who died after being left in a car for eight hours in Long Island, N.Y.