Mother Charged After Child Wanders into Pharmacy Alone

Rite Aid pharmacy staff recently helped care for a 3-year-old boy who wandered into their store alone.

Now, the boy’s mother is facing charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The child wandered into the Rite Aid in Newport News, Virginia, on July 11, 2015, around 4:30 p.m., 13 News Now reported.

Pharmacy employees found the boy and cared for him until the police came and called Child Protective Services. Meanwhile, a customer helped police officers find out where the boy lived.

The child’s mother, 39-year-old Karen Louise Bauer, told police she did not know her son could get out of the apartment, according to 13 News Now. She also lied to the police about her identity, so in addition to the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, she was charged with 1 count of providing a false identity to the police.

Bauer was allegedly not the only one who could have kept an eye on the boy, because another adult was at the child’s home during the incident, 13 News Now reported. Lee Ernest Whitaker, 51, was issued a summons for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and then released.