What Would You Do??

I'm going to put this up here and also on Gift of Gab because I'm still so shocked by it that I wanted to share it with the masses to see if I over reacted or under reacted or reacted just enough....

As I was coming out of my counseling appointment on Tuesday I walked down the stairs of the office building and passed a car parked closest to the door. The back door of the car was open and in the car sat three little children.

One little boy was about 5 or 6, the little girl was 3 or 4 and the other little boy was still in a car seat, I would guess 9 months to a year. The youngest little boy was visibly sweating (it was after all 93 degrees outside, I can only imagine what it was in the car) and the oldest little boy was playing with a can of starting fluid.

I could smell the strong smell as he took paper towels and was spraying it on them and then wiping the tires. (I have no idea what he was hoping to accomplish, I'm guessing it was boredom.) Since the smell was so strong outside of the car I can only imagine how strong it was inside the car.

As I passed these kids I thought to myself, where is their mother? I then proceeded across the parking lot, got in my vehicle, and pulled out. I made it about 100 yards before I pulled my car over and called my mom. I asked her for the non-emergency number to the police department and then I went back to the car and parked two spaces down from it.

As I was on the phone with my mom the mother came out with some water. At this point it had been at least 5 minutes that these children were alone in the car. Enough time that if I wanted to I could have kidnapped them all and she would have been none the wiser.

She gave the youngest some water and then wiped the sweat from his head. The oldest boy got out of the car and ran up the steps and into the office building. The little girl followed him leaving just the baby in the car. It was at this point that I dialed the non-emergency number as the mother once again walked up the steps after her two oldest children leaving the infant unattended.

Once she got the two oldest back to the car I'm pretty sure she knew I was calling someone. She was not a large woman probably my build and wore a "cape...(I don't know what they're called)" over her head. My other thought was maybe in her culture it is not a problem to leave children in the car....

As she put the kids in the car, the oldest with no seat belts, the dispatcher asked me to tell him where she was going. So I followed her. At first there was a car between us but pretty soon I was right behind her and I'm pretty sure she knew I was following her. We traveled down the street where she drove really slowly and then eventually pulled over and was watching to see what I would do in her mirrors.

Not wanting to cause a huge confrontation I pulled around her and watched her do a u-turn and go back the other way. I'm not sure if the police ever found her because by the time I got turned around she was gone.

After talking to Shane on the phone he says he would have blocked her in and not let her leave or pulled in behind her when she pulled over. Is it legal for me to do that?? Now, two days later, I worry about those kids. If she left them once, she will leave them again. Next week they are talking about highs in the 100's.

So, what would you have done? Would you have confronted her and tried to keep her there until the police came or continued to follow her when it was obvious she knew you were there and didn't want to be followed?