When a 19-year-old nanny pulled up to a Roswell grocery store, one of the two toddlers in her care had fallen asleep, she told police.
So, Leah Wilging decided to turn off the engine, lock the car and leave them, according to a police report.
It was about 2 p.m. on Feb. 13.
The list of groceries kept Wilging inside the Sprouts store on Alpharetta Highway longer than she’d anticipated, she told police.
When the manager, Michael Jones, heard crying from the back of a car, he called police.
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An officer saw the windows were cracked about 2 inches, but one of the kids, who appeared to be ages 2 and 4, was in direct sunlight.
Wilging then walked out with a full cart, the officer wrote in the report.
After calling the children’s father to pick them up, Wilging was arrested on two counts of reckless conduct and booked into the Roswell city jail.
Roswell police spokeswoman Officer Lisa Holland said the reckless conduct charge fit because the nanny put the children at risk by leaving them alone in the car.
“The child needs to be taken inside of the business that they are brought to,” Holland said. “If they are tired, or sleeping, then either go back home or stay with them in the car. It's never okay to leave a child unattended in a vehicle.”
Georgia has no law about the age at which children can be left alone, but the Division of Family and Children Services recommends all children under 8 be supervised at all times.
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