Florida mother leaves crying 3-year-old daughter alone in car and goes to work at strip club, charged with child neglect
A woman who left her three-year-old daughter alone in a car for about three hours while working at a strip club in Lauderhill was arrested Tuesday morning.
23-year-old Manouchika Daniels, of Miami, faces one count of child neglect, WPLG reports.
Dispatch received a call shortly before 2 am Tuesday reporting a little girl who was crying and roaming around the Vegas Cabaret parking lot in the 5400 block of North University Drive, according to an arrest report.
Responding officers said the toddler had no adult supervision and appeared to be confused. But she led police to a black Toyota Corolla that was parked but had the back window cracked. There were toys and a car seat in the back of the vehicle, authorities said.
About 30 to 40 minutes later, Daniels approached the responding officers and identified herself as the mother of the child and owner of the car.
"She admitted that she just left the child there briefly while she dropped somebody off, but later in the case, we realized that was not the issue," Lt. Michael Santiago said.
Authorities said the child had been left sleeping in the vehicle since 11 pm that night. "I mean, she could've been seriously hurt," Santiago noted. "A 3-year-old is especially vulnerable in this type of situation. You have traffic flow on University Drive and it's dark."
Police said they were grateful that the 911 caller was alert while driving and noticed the girl roaming about alone.
Daniels was subsequently arrested and taken to the main Broward County jail, while her daughter was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.