An Iowa mother was arrested on Monday, August 8, after her toddler was found alone in a backyard sucking on a frozen chicken breast. According to a police report obtained by The Des Moines Register, a small terrier was observed jumping on the 2-year-old to get the food.
Hallie Elizabeth Amick was charged with suspicion of child endangerment and drug possession, per the paper.
Police said they learned about the situation when Amick’s boyfriend was pulled over for speeding and explained he was rushing home because a child had been left alone, according to the Register. When authorities arrived, they discovered the boy behind the house wearing only a T-shirt and a diaper.
“His diaper was almost down to his knees,” neighbor Deborah Snyder, whose balcony overlooks the yard, told the paper. Snyder claimed the neglect was not an isolated incident.
“This is the first time he got out of the house, but ever since they moved in they [have left] him alone,” she said.
When Amick, 30, returned nearly two hours after police were called, she claimed it was the first time she’d left her son unattended, the Register reported. But later she admitted that she has left him alone on “occasion.”
According to the police report, authorities searched the home and found a marijuana pipe, blunts and marijuana stems in plain sight, KCCI Des Moines reported.
KCCI reported she was released from the Polk County jail on August 9, just one day after her arrest.
