It’s a story that is causing outrage across America this weekend as it emerged a 19-year-old pot-smoking mom left her five-week baby strapped in a car seat on top of her car and drove off, with the car seat falling off the 2000 Ford Focus and into the middle of the road.
Most shockingly of all, the mom, Catalina Clouser, didn’t even realize her child was missing until she got home.
At about 1 a.m. Saturday, Phoenix police officers got calls from the 45th Avenue and Cholla area, just south of Cactus Road, that a baby was in a car seat in the middle of a road.
Phoenix Fire Department officials found the baby and took him to a local hospital. He was “perfectly OK,” said Officer James Holmes, spokesman for Phoenix police.
Holmes said the mother, Catalina Clouser, had apparently been smoking marijuana late Friday night at a nearby park with her boyfriend. At about 11 p.m. they left the park to buy some beer. The boyfriend was arrested on aggravated DUI charges while on the way, Holmes said.
An upset Clouser then reportedly went to a friend’s house where, she admitted, she smoked more marijuana, Holmes said. By midnight, Clouser left the house with the baby asleep in the car seat.
She was arrested on charges of aggravated DUI and child abuse and the baby is in the care of Child Protective Services..
On a Twitter account that appears to belong to Clouser, her only mention of Friday’s incident is “A cop just drove my car home. What an awesome night.”
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What do you think?