A Greene County deputy arrested a Buckhead woman on reckless conduct charges on Jan. 22 after he found two small children sitting in a car with the engine running and the doors locked, parked in the Home Depot parking lot.
Maureen McCorey Brown, 37, was allowed to leave the scene if she agreed to turn herself in the next day, according to the report.
Lt. Patrick Paquette traveled to the Home Depot store in Greensboro after a concerned citizen told him that a car was parked in the parking lot with the children in the backseat.
Paquette located the vehicle with the engine running and the children sitting in car seats in the back.
Paquette stated that the children were an infant and a toddler. Both were awake and did not appear to be in distress.
After several minutes of waiting by the car, Paquette ran the vehicle’s tag through dispatch in order to obtain the contact information for the owner of the vehicle. According to the report, dispatch called the phone number for the registered owner of the vehicle. The man who answered stated that his wife was driving the vehicle and that he would call her to return to it.
After several more minutes of waiting, Paquette confronted Brown when she came came out of the store.
Brown told Paquette that she left the children in the car while she went into Home Depot to shop, but that she locked the car doors.
Paquette explained to Brown the danger of leaving the children in the vehicle with the engine running for such a substantial period and the risk to the children if the vehicle were stolen.
Brown said one of the children was 8 months old and the other was 3 years old.
Paquette advised Brown that he was going to obtain warrants for her arrest, and she needed to turn herself in the next day at the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.