Inset: Alicia Moore (Florida Department of Corrections). Background: Officials put out Moore’s car after it caught on fire while she was shoplifting (Oviedo Police Department).
A woman spent an hour shoplifting inside a Florida Dillard’s as her kids sat in her car, and as she came out of the store she saw the car was on fire. Nearby shoppers saw the kids in burning car and rescued the three children before they suffered serious injuries.
Police and fire crews responded to the Dillard’s at the Oviedo Mall, which is near Orlando, around on May 26, 2023, for a car fire. Firefighters knocked down the blaze but the car was destroyed. A police officer’s body camera captured an interview with a witness.
“When I pulled up it was fully engulfed,” the woman said.
Another witness already was on scene and had pulled the kids out of the flaming car.
“It looked like they had been in the car because they had little soot on their noses,” the witness told the officer.
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Police arrested the mother, 26-year-old Alicia Moore, on child neglect charges. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, loss prevention officers spotted Moore and her male companion as they were shoplifting and watched them for about an hour. Moore began to walk out of the store “only to see her vehicle engulfed in flames,” the affidavit said. She dropped the stolen merchandise and ran outside but the kids had already been taken out of the car.
Paramedics rushed the kids to the hospital. One of them suffered first-degree burns to her face and ears. They survived the incident. It’s unclear what caused the car to catch on fire.
Court records show Moore pleaded guilty to aggravated child neglect in August. She also pleaded no contest to the shoplifting charges. A judge sentenced her to 2 1/2 years in prison.
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