A 19-year-old Arizona mother who police say left her 5-week-old baby strapped in a car seat atop her car roof and drove off is under arrest on child abuse and aggravated DUI charges, Phoenix-area media reported Saturday.
The baby is in the custody of Arizona Child Protective Services, officials said.
At
about 1 a.m. Saturday, police got calls from the area near North 45th
Avenue and West Cholla Street in northwest Phoenix that a baby was in a
car seat in the middle of a road, The Arizona Republic reported.
Phoenix Fire Department officials found the baby and took him to a local hospital, officials said.
Holmes
told reporters that the mother, Catalina Clouser, had apparently been
smoking marijuana late Friday night at a nearby park with her boyfriend.
About
11 p.m. they left the park to buy some beer, and the boyfriend was
arrested on aggravated DUI charges while on the way, Holmes told The
Republic.
An upset Clouser then reportedly went to a friend's
house, where police say she admitted smoking more marijuana, Holmes
said. Clouser left the house with the baby asleep in the car seat about
midnight, he said.
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Before driving away, Clouser apparently forgot that she had left her child sitting on the roof of her car, Holmes said.
Clouser
realized the baby was missing when she reached home, and started
calling friends to look for him and retrace her route, KTVK reported.
The friends ran into the officers investigating the found the baby, and when Clouser arrived, she was arrested, KTVK reported.
