Crime
Mom Arrested After Nonverbal Daughter Escapes Home, Wanders to Family Dollar Twice in One Week
A Florida mother was arrested after her child wandered away from their home unsupervised twice in under a week.
According to court records viewed by Globe, Jasmine Greer was arrested on Tuesday, November 10, after police found her young daughter, who has autism and is nonverbal, wandering with a soiled diaper by a nearby Family Dollar. She was charged with two felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.
It’s unclear how, but the child had somehow escaped the home and wandered toward the store. Someone saw her and called the police, later noting that the girl, who had a soiled diaper, was almost struck by a car while traveling unsupervised. By the time police got there, Greer, 37, had already come and retrieved the child.
Police found Greer playing with her daughter in the computer room of her apartment complex, where the girl was still wearing a soiled diaper. They escorted her back to her apartment for the purpose of changing the diaper and subsequently brought her to the police station for questioning, according to an arrest affidavit.
This was not the first time police had been called because the child had wandered to the Family Dollar. Four days prior, on November 6, they got a call that the girl had escaped her home and made her way there. She was holding a cell phone that Greer eventually called to figure out where the girl was. By the time it started ringing, she was with officers.
Greer was not arrested for that first incident, but after questioning, she was taken into custody following the second incident and charged.
Greer said that she was cleaning the apartment the first time the child wandered off and had handed her the cell phone to occupy her. The second time, she said she was looking for a charger and using the bathroom when the girl wandered off again.
While being questioned, police noted that Greer admitted she had not done a good enough job supervising the girl now that it was known she had a history of wandering off.
She is currently being held on a $20,000 bond. She has pleaded not guilty to both counts against her.
