Mother arrested after 1-year-old son reportedly left in freezing car

[Old Fart]

A Tulsa mother accused of leaving her 1-year-old son alone in car during below freezing temperatures while she worked was booked into jail on $100,000 bond Tuesday.
Shalamar Ratliff, 27, told police she "knew it was stupid" to leave her baby in the parking lot of Hillcrest Hospital for eight hours, "but did it anyway," according to an arrest report.
Ratliff told detectives that she took the baby to work with her about 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 22 because she didn't want to call in sick, the report said.
According to the National Weather Service, the temperature that morning was 21 degrees.
Ratliff said she returned to the car about 10:30 a.m. to feed the baby before heading back to work, the report said.
Police said Ratliff left her son home alone on Jan. 16 while she went to work. The report states she said the baby's grandmother "could have cared for him, but she decided to leave him alone."
Officers were called to the home hours later in response to an alarm call and found the baby alone. Ratliff then returned home an estimated 30 minutes later, police said.
Ratliff remains in the Tulsa Jail on two child neglect complaints.
The baby has been placed in Department of Human Services custody

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crim...cle_094b273a-88f0-11e3-81df-001a4bcf6878.html

 

[Commander Keen]

The punishment for things like asshould involve phrases such as "short drop, sudden stop", "cat o' nine tails", or "behind the courthouse".

 

[tRidiot]

How in the world did she have the opportunity to leave him in the car when she'd first been caught leaving him home alone???? How did she get that baby back???

Oh wait.... DHS.

'Nuff said.

 

[Spata]

Poor kid doesn't have a chance.

 

[Johnny]

Very Sad.

 

[Old Fart]

Stuff like this just disturbs the crap out of me. If you don't want the kids give him up.

 

[austin.brown]

How did this ever seem like a option that was OK to choose? It amazes me how stupid people can be and it pisses me off when children have to pay the price for their stupidity!!!!

 

[Old Fart]

I in the past had nice long talks with adults in my program about having a plan "B" for when they or their kids got sick.
Then when they had that covered I would move on to plan "C", "D', "E",....... will you get it.
I commend her for having a job, but you just can't do this kind of crap and be considered human.

 

[Blinocac200sx]

I understand what she did was wrong, but I can honestly see how easy it is for someone in her situation to get into this sort of mess. She's got a new little baby, she's trying to earn a living to raise him, and her normal free babysitter flakes out or falls through. You can fake it for a few days at work with sick leave, but eventually you gotta find some other option. If you don't go to church and don't have any other kind of support system to fall back on, you could be in a serious world of hurt. My heart goes out to both her baby, and her.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

Some people could care less about their kids. I used to work security as a second job at a bingo hall. It was a daily occurance to walk the parking lot and find kids left alone in cars. I'd get their names and go inside and get on the PA, call them by name and tell them they could not leave their kids in their cars while they played bingo. Very few ever came back.