Police in South Carolina arrested a man and a woman Saturday after they allegedly left a baby in their running car for several hours in a mall parking lot.
Spartanburg Police said they were called to Westgate Mall at about 1:30 p.m. by a woman who said she had first seen the car when she arrived at work at 10:30 a.m., according to WHNS. When the car was still there four hours later, she checked the vehicle and saw in infant inside. She pulled the baby out of the car and called 911.
Officers arrived a few minutes later and searched the car, finding pills that were later determined to be methamphetamine and a stolen ID.
Thirty minutes later, an emergency medical crew arrived on the the scene, and shortly afterward, 26-year-old Shezmon Dendy and 25-year-old Tacara Gill came out to the vehicle. Neither appeared concerned that first responders had surrounded their vehicles.
Officers began speaking to the pair, but Dendy tried to run when he saw Gill put into a patrol car. He was quickly caught, and both were taken to the Spartanburg County Detention Center.
Dendy and Gill were both charged with unlawful conduct toward a child, and Dendy was also charged with resisting arrest, manufacture or possession of methamphetamine, and receiving stolen goods, according to jail records. Dendy is being held on a $26,000 bond, while Gill was ordered held on a $10,000 bond.
Police did not say how long the baby was in the car, where Dendy and Gill were while the baby was in the car, or how old the baby is. They also did not say what happened to the baby or who the baby’s parents were.
