Nicole Yazzie, Mesa, Arizona mom leaves 4 year old in hot car while shopping without AC, cause she was afraid daughter ‘might drive away’.
An Arizona mother has been accused of child abuse after leaving her 4 year old daughter in a hot car on Saturday amid searing heat while she went shopping.
Nicole Dawn Yazzie, 32, is alleged to have left the child unattended as temperatures hovered over 110F around 7.45pm while at a Mesa shopping center at Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue, AZFamily reported.
Court documents stated two passerby’s seeing the girl locked inside the vehicle with the windows rolled up and the engine not running, before calling police.
Afraid she ‘might drive away’
As officers arrived, Yazzie came out of a store, unlocked the car and opened the right rear passenger door according to court records.
An officer saw the girl inside sweating profusely and removed her from the car.
Court documents stated the victim being disoriented, pale and appearing to have peed herself.
She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and long cotton pants, the officer said.
It was 110 degrees outside and police calculated it was 129 degrees inside the car, court paperwork stated according to KNPX.
The child was given water and medical attention on the scene and then placed into an air-conditioned police car.
Documents state that Yazzie intentionally placed the girl in the car because the child didn’t want to go into the store.
But there was more.
She also allegedly admitted to not turning the car on because ‘she didn’t want her daughter to drive away,’ police said.
The woman also said she knew it was wrong to leave her daughter in the car, according to court documents.
Yazzie has been booked into the Maricopa County jail on one count of child abuse.
Her bond was set at $15,000.
