John Jefferson
Inset: Tiffany Simmons (Polk County Jail). Background: Apple Lounge & Grill in Winter Haven, Florida (WFLA/YouTube).
A 36-year-old mother of four is in jail after she allegedly left her four kids in her car outside a Florida bar so she could go party.
Tiffany Shanta Simmons showed up at the Apple Lounge & Grill in Winter Haven around 9:20 p.m. on Monday with her 8-year-old son, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. A bartender told Simmons that people under 21 were not allowed inside the establishment so the mother claimed she would take the boy out to his father. About 15 minutes later, Simmons allegedly returned to the bar alone and ordered some Vodka sodas and food.
After about 45 minutes, a bartender grew suspicious of Simmons and the whereabouts of the child so she went out to the parking lot to investigate.
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“So, I went outside and started scoping the cars and our parking lot and unfortunately found four times what I thought I was going to find in the back,” the bartender, Brittany Cohee, told Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in addition to the aforementioned 8-year-old boy, there was a 10-month-old girl, a 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl inside the car in the back corner of the parking lot. They were alone without adult supervision or a working cellphone, deputies said. Cops also described the parking lot as “dimly lit” and in a “high crime” area. Judd called Simmons “a lady who defines the word crazy.”
Cohee called the sheriff’s office which responded to the bar to check on the children. They were not hurt but deputies found the 10-month-old face down in the middle of the backseat which could have caused asphyxiation, the affidavit said. Simmons came “stumbling” out of the bar and appeared to be “extremely intoxicated,” deputies noted. She became “belligerent” and started fighting with deputies, the affidavit said. Simmons allegedly kicked one deputy and they had to restrain her in a rip hobble in the back of the cruiser.
Simmons is facing a slew of charges, including child neglect, battery on an officer and resisting arrest. According to cops, Simmons has a “proven history of DUI while transporting” her children.
“She left four little beautiful babies in a car that was running by themselves in a bar parking lot at night,” said Judd. “She needs to go to prison.”
Judd said Simmons “won’t be mother of the year.”
“She still ate and drank, and danced, well she danced all the way to the county jail in handcuffs,” Judd quipped.
Deputies called the Department of Children and Families who took custody of the kids and released them to family members. In the aftermath, staff at the Apple Lounge banded together and bought the four kids Christmas gifts.
“It broke our hearts, of course we are human, and we care about children, and we care about everyone for that matter,” employee Jennifer Denby told WFLA.
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