Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Watauga Mom Talks About Leaving Baby in Car - Texas
Jessica Liston was arrested for leaving her baby in a locked car, in triple-digit heat, while she shopped at Wal-Mart. Now, the North Texas parent is speaking out to CBS 11 News, hoping it will help other parents avoid the same mistake.
The two children were sent to live with Liston's aunt last week, after the 21-year-old mom was arrested for suspicion of injury to a child. It happened after she left her baby daughter in a locked car while she went shopping inside a Wal-Mart store in north Fort Worth.
Liston told CBS 11 News that her mother had gone into the store before her, and she thought that baby Elizabeth was already inside.
"When I figured out that she didn't have her, I ran outside," said Liston. "And by the time I got out there, somebody had already gotten her." Luckily, a Good Samaritan saw Elizabeth in the backseat and broke into the car with a crowbar to rescue the baby. "I just want to hug him," Liston said of the man who saved her baby. "I can't thank him enough."
"How could you not know that your baby was in the backseat? Makes me sound so hypocritical, because I've said that," Liston told CBS 11 News. "But it happens. It does happen."
~ Special Thanks to 'Just Another Mommy' for Submitting this Article.
Personaly I would have had Walmart page the Mother before taking a crowbar to the car.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'
Only Dad Here
ReplyDeleteI think in 100 degree heat, time is of the essence. I would have busted out the car window, too.
In that heat I would have called the police, and depending on what they said, probably broken the window too.
ReplyDeleteI think it's too bad the mom got arrested- sounds like an honest mistake and hopefully the charges, if any, are dropped. She knows her mistake well enough, jail time isn't going to add any lessons learned in this case.
Why did this mom get arrested and not the others? I don't get it. The other children died. I'm so sick of this happening. It has to stop.
ReplyDelete"How could you not know that your baby was in the backseat? Makes me sound so hypocritical, because I've said that," Liston told CBS 11News.
ReplyDelete***********************************
I'm just reiterating that bit for anyone who is sure it can never happen to them. ;)
I believe they are always questioned by the police and then a determination is made based on the interview. Anybody see the woman on Oprah last week who killed her baby girl by leaving her in the car?
ReplyDeleteTHANK GOD the peson that broke the window was there!!! On the note of not knowing... the other day I was babysitting for a new family. Having the infant is on a rare rare babsis... my second day with fam, I had her. I had forgotten I had her until one of the older girls started chatting with her in the backseat. Granted if it were just the baby, I wouldn't have forgotten.. and would have seen the seat when I exited the vehicle. But it was a surrreal moment to think "oh my gosh... oh yeah, I have the baby today..."
ReplyDeleteIf the child looks to be in distress, you are supposed to break the window immediately and call the police - every minute counts in a hot car. The cost of a window is nothing. In 10 minutes there can be brain damage.
ReplyDeletethis makes me really ill. when will it end?
ReplyDeleteand wtf, I still stand by what I said. this would never happen to me.
Although this mother in this story seems to have a better excuse than many others who's "schedules were different that day." she was diagnosed with depression and was on medication. It should be a lesson to all who are on prescription drugs to check in with your doctor and be honest with them about the side effects of the medication (tiredness, inability to focus, etc.)
Funny how she was the one who was arrested, isn't it, when the others who were well off and educated and just did a schedule oopsie are off scott free. Interesting.
A few years back a " Mother" Tara Maynard was arrested for leaving her two toddlers in her car " within temps of mid 80's" The temp rose to be 120 within the car .. Her two children died. Mom * shaking my head. Chose to take her two little ones with her " while she had an appointment at her Salon". The children were left for up to 3 hours in the car without care. She parked in an area that was shaded away from the building " no one would have been able to see these kids" to break the windows. It was later discovered that she had others that she could have left the children with at their home. But she chose to take them with her. Mom freaked when she found the children no longer alive and made up a story that she had been raped and removed from the Salon parking lot and later brought back... that she was abducted. All proven to be false.
ReplyDeleteI have myself called the Police seeing children left in cars .. One time I swore the Baby was dead in this Van. She had little blisters all over her pudgy little arms/hands and her pacifier was dangling out of her tiny mouth. It was in shopping mall parking lot. OMG was it HOT that day. I swear it was close to 100 degrees. I parked and turned to lock my car ..and saw into this van with tinted windows .. a little girl maybe 15 mos old strapped in her car seat. I ran into the nearest store. I did not have a cell phone. They Called 911. I ran back to the Van and I stood there not knowing what to do. I had nothing to break the glass. I was yelling into the Van..Wake Up. Wake up Little Girl.. and I was melting in the heat and crying. Then Low and behold here comes MOM. O I snapped and I said Open the Door and make sure she is Alive. I will never get the Mom ripped into me. She had a very thick German Accent. She was swearing at me, Get away from my Van. I stood there for a second and said are You Crazy! Your Daughter needs to be checked NOW. She said I am from Germany we do what we want with our children, we leave them all the time, while we shop.. ( I thought what the hay is she talking about) She got in her Van and sped off like a bat out of hell. The police arrived right after and they attempted to chase her down. I do not know what ever happened to that little girl. Sigh
-interesting article on Parents who are arrested after leaving their children in cars -
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-29-lefttodie_N.htm
What I'm tired of is that this keeps happening. Another thing I'm tired of is people saying, "THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO ME." That's why it's called an accident. It's accidental. Look it up in the dictionary if you are having trouble. Please leave your holier-than-thou attitude at your log in.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about anyone else here but when my kidswere little, even if I had someone else with me, I made sure where my kids were and checked and rechecked...Maybe that was being over obsesive, but I always watched where they were at,especialy in public.
ReplyDeletewhatever:
ReplyDeletethis would NEVER happen to me. I realize it is an "ACCIDENT" and I know the meaning of the word. This is one accident that would NEVER happen to me. Only over my dead body would my child be "forgotten."
TammyD,
ReplyDeletehehehe...I was like that...always counting heads, etc. Once at a McDonalds playland, as we were leaving, I did a head count of the kids in our playgroup. I came up one short, and immediately scanned the group to figure out which child was missing. It was my own son! I immediatley called all the other moms to action to search for him and everybody scrambled off in different directions...everybody calling out which area of the McDonalds they would be responsible for searching. Everybody came back empty handed and we all went into a tither thinking he had "escaped" the building. After a few moments, one of the moms suddenly said, "He's right there." It was only then that all of us tired, crazy moms realized that we had been looking for the child I had been holding on my hip the entire time!" They all had to have seen him, since we were standing all together when I announced he was missing...and nobody even noticed him for a bit as we were all panicked that he had left...and you would think that I, above all people, would have realized I was carrying a child!
Sometimes we moms just do get that tired and bone headed. Heheheehe
Minute Muggle:
ReplyDeleteI stand by what I said. There's that holier-than-thou attitude again. Can it, you sound like a broken record. Everyone on this board knows that accidents happen, and I am definitely one laughing that you are so adamant that it won't happen to you. Again, check the dictionary chica.
re: mom said...
ReplyDeleteOh my that's just a cute story...I've done things like that..where i would say where's josh only to be holding his hand...but my point is you know where the babies are...i knew when my kids where in the car and when they weren't,...this is just ooo sad
whatever:
ReplyDeleteeat my shorts.
tammyD,
ReplyDeleteYes, as long as they turn out OK in the end, those types of incidents just go into our repertoire of "remember when" stories that we seem to have so much fun repeating endlessly as a family....even though we all know them by heart.
BTW, you may be interested in knowing that my nickname among my friends that I raised my kids with is still, to this day, "Ms Safety." How about I share that title with you? Sounds like we might be quite alike in that regard! Hehehe
RE: mom said
ReplyDeleteI would be proud and priveledged to share that title with you!
I know this is an old thread, butall of you that feel sorry for her - don't. I know this person and she is full of so much garbage it's not even real. I have PROOF that she lied. She told the cops that her mother was in the store with her other 2 kids, right? i had a PERSONAL conversation with her and she told me to my face that the other two kids were at home with her father. I didn't ask, but I don't even think that her mother was at the store with her at all.. she called her mother to come up there and act like she had been in the store nad corroborated the story. And yes, her mother would do that - Jessica isn't the other sick and twsited person in that family - the whole family is mentally ill and drama driven. The only reason she got out of it is because Jessica is a cunning, manipulative little liar, and she learned that from her mother, who teamed up with her nad fooled the officers and investigators. I put my life on these words.
ReplyDelete