John Jefferson
A Florida mother was arrested for leaving her three-year-old son alone in an apartment when she went to get plastic surgery.
Jessica Renteria, 25, was taken into custody on charges of child neglect following the incident back on June 27.
Police had responded to the woman’s apartment complex in Doral around 4.15pm that afternoon after tenants found the child wandering the complex alone.
Now, police have released bodycam footage from the incident, showing an officer finding the child and asking where his mother is.
“Hey, little buddy, what’s your name?” the officer asks the child. “Do you know where papi and mami are?”
Officers went to several apartments looking for the boy’s mother.
“Hello, by any chance, are you missing a kid?” an officer asked one man.
As the search ensued, one tenant commented: “This is like the girl, the lady, that left her daughter to go on vacation.”
“Yes,” a neighbor responded.
Police eventually located Renteria a couple of miles away at a cosmetic surgery center.
There, she allegedly told officers a friend was supposed to be watching her son.
When contacted, the friend said the mother had not told him to take care of the boy.
Renteria was arrested and taken to jail still dressed in a robe and head wrap from her surgery.
Police said that the child had been left alone for six hours, with one tenant finding the little boy sleeping in a corner of the apartment complex.
Renteria’s trial is set for December 2.
The incident comes after a mother in Houston hit headlines back in April when she was accused of leaving her children alone at an apartment complex to go on a cruise.
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