A mother accused of leaving her toddler in a vehicle alone Thursday evening is facing charges.
Richmond County sheriff’s Lt. Calvin Chew said a customer alerted security at Bi-Lo, 3457 Peach Orchard Road, after seeing a 2-year-old girl sitting in a carseat in an unattended vehicle.
Security guards found Ashley Nicole Cruz, 25, inside the store 15 minutes later. Police are unsure how long the child had been left alone, Chew said.
Cruz has been charged with deprivation of a minor.
I've reported this in past years on different occasions to the proper authorities and was just brushed off with, "oh, it's just their culture" (when the children were black and the weather was dangerously hot). I was appalled at the lack of concern and panicked, feeling helpless as to what to do next. Thankfully, in both cases, the drivers returned while I was trying to figure out how to safeguard the children. But if I ever hear that prejudiced attitude again, I'm going to the next higher up on the chain of command. We have a duty to protect children no matter what the color of their skin or their perceived or misperceived alleged culture.
My folks would have been locked up in the 70's, I recall sitting in the car lots of times :) Also standing up between the seats, laying in the back window, you name it.
my.voice My folks might have been locked up, too, if they had to go by today's rules; they didn't know better as very young parents who had not had a very secure upbringing themselves. But we know better now. And if we don't, we should be taught at the first opportunity, before a child pays the price of a parent's risk-taking error in judgment. We are responsible for our children's safety. Safety first.
AutumnLeaves, I really fail to see how this is a race issue. Did you speak with a store owner or called the police yourself, and if you contacted the autorities yourself, please tell us which department was irresponsible. I find it hard to believe that if you had called the police that they would refuse to investigate a small child or toddler locked in a vehicle by themeselves.
Once again someone has to turn something into a race issue. Everyone wants to be treated the same but people like yourself don't want to act the same. You don't here whites or asian complaining about race after after a white or asian person is treated a certain way. We as human beings need to give up the race card and face the fact that we are all at some point treated differently than another person regardless of race or creed. People with your mentality is what keeps us falling further and further behind!
InChristLove, and B. I did not make it a "race issue" as you are trying to make it, the people that responded to my plea for help made the prejudiced statement! I DID speak with the store owner in these incidents and the authorities that were called and it was the officers that CAME to the scene in the two separate incidents that made the comments, one officer who was black himself! This happened over 5 years ago and I PRAY this prejudiced attitude is no longer prevalent. If you find the response hard to believe, well I understand that, because I couldn't believe my ears myself! There was no "investigating" really necessary they could see the specifics with their own eyes. I don't know what policy was at that time; but I had small children of my own and I would have been horrified if anyone had ever done that with my children. To me it was only commonsense not to leave children alone in a car, running, or not, locked or not, too dangerous!
You'll get no arguement from me AutumnLeaves concerning the dangers of leaving young children unattended in vehicles in today's world. Children are not as disciplined as they were in the 60's and 70's and as a child, if my parent had to run into the store or gas station for a moment, you best bet I sit my butt in the seat and don't touch anything. Of course I don't believe it is ever okay to leave a child who is 2 years old or infant in a locked/unlocked vehicle by themselves. I know it's time consuming and a pain to drag a kid into the store or only a moment worth of shopping but so much can happen, a child could choke, someone break in and steal the child, out of control vehicle in parking lot ram into your parked car, etc....
As for the word "investigating", I suppose law enforcement training never leaves your blood, and what I meant by the word "investigating" is that when an officer is placed on a call, they are to investigate and check out all the facts to determine if the call is legit. Once the officer arrived and took notice that the child was alone in the vehicle then he/she could determine the call was legit, find the parents, and determine appropriate action. I noticed you failed to mention where this occurred and I was just wondering if it was locally or in another state.
It's true; leaving your children in the car is so not the right thing to do.
Though in my childhood; it was widely accepted in the South. Of course, windows were down and practically everyone was either related or really good friends and so my mother was a regular subscriber to leaving my hard-headed brother and I in the car...together.
We still argue over it today, as to who was actually behind the wheel when the gear shift was moved out of park and into neutral. We certainly taught mother a lesson that day about parking uphill in front of the town railroad track. She's still catching flack about it.
Same here. Times have changed though. We've gone from not having to lock the doors to our house to having 3 deadbolts and an alarm system.
I don't know what has happened to society and it has nothing to do with God. It's just that people have been desensitized to human kindness, Everyone is out for themselves and if it ain't nailed down then folks figureit's fair game,
What a shame.
We were older..I was around 8 my brother was 12, the windows were down of course. We also rode in the back of my dad's truck and rode our bikes, skateboards and skated with no protective equipment. Thankfully, my mom kept a supply of bandaids, Mercurochrome, Iodine and Chloroform Liniment. We had no central A/C until I was 12 and relied on a gigantic window unit that was only allowed on when my Dad was home. We slept under fans with the windows open and stayed outside during the day and had water balloon fights and ran in the sprinklers. You accepted that if you were slower you got picked last for team sports and got hit first in dodgeball. It didn't damage our psyche, it made us realize that in life there are people that are better than you and in order to be your best you had to work harder than some of the other kids. I am thankful that I grew up in a time where there were winners and losers and nobody complained about it....
Are you my brother? My brothers would kid me and say I'll give you 3 points - I'd say kiss my ! I drove when I was 14 - just couldn't go out on the paved roads - glory days....
We never lock our doors cause we don't even know where the keys are - but we live in the woods and have fire arms.
I think we stomped on some of the same ground though lol
Autumnleaves.... How many times did you report white children left in the car and got a positive response? If you only got the response about black children, but it was only black children you alerted the authorities about, then you have no idea whether or not there was a racial aspect to your encounter.
Why can't some people just stop blaming EVERY SINGLE THING in the world on race?
We are a bunch of mongoloids - my grandson's skin is so much darker than my anglo saxon looks - Mama who is 93 and from Miss had a hard time understanding how her grandson would marry a black girl until she met her and now loves her - (she said, Lilly I haven't gotten off the plantation much less the Civil War - this is against my beliefs) Henry - I swear to God, because of the world we now live in -we do not look at color - trust me - we look at character!
My other gran children look like they are from South America - very pretty children - all my grandchildren are different colors! The Anglo's are gone!
Help me - he said stupidity shows no skin color - what does that mean?
she means that you cannot tell someone is stupid by the color of their skin.
Humble Angela, I have reported any dangerous situation I see regardless of the color of the person or persons' skin, but the remarks were not made when I witnessed and reported a whole family of white children left in their car, although, again, no charges were made since the driver came out of the grocery store while I was reporting it to security. Also, I am not white, nor black. Did you assume I was white? Someone also asked if these were local incidents. Yes, they were in Richmond County.
I don't know how to make it any clearer. If someone is purple, that doesn't mean they are stupid. If someone is green that doesn't mean they are smart. Race does not make someone smart or stupid.
When I grew up my parents left my brothers and I in the car many times while they ran into the store to pick up bread and milk. One would think that with the progression of DFACS and laws, they would be smart enough to not leave the children in the car now.
The media has drawn attention to all the evils that occur in society today. The same evils existed 30 years ago when I was left in the car. Awareness has grown, more people report these incidents.
I hope that helps your understanding. Also, just because I don't have a high points value under my name does not mean I am not a long time member. It only means that I don't post many comments. I have no problem with being questioned, I do have a problem if you are trying to insult my intelligence.
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