There are so many people in the world who would love to take care of a child, but this mother had absolutely no compassion for her five-month-old baby. A so-called mother in Florida was arrested for child abuse during a traffic stop Tuesday after police discovered her five-month-old baby in the trunk of her car.
19-year-old Breona Watkins was speeding down the street at about 1 am outside Ft. Lauderdale and Broward County Sheriff’s deputies pulled her over for driving a car with a broken tail light.
During a bail hearing Tuesday afternoon, Judge John Hurley read a police report aloud, which stated that the police found the child in the trunk of the car lying on a pair of sharp scissors and other extremely dangerous items.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, Breona Watkins is being charged with resisting an officer, child abuse and five traffic-related offenses, which include driving without a license and failure to have a child restraint.
According to the police report, Watkins kept driving after police signaled her to stop. Once Breona Watkins pulled over she gave the police a false identity and told them she didn’t have her driver’s license with her. The car she was driving was registered to her aunt, Todra Richardson.
Her aunt told WSVN news station she didn’t know Breona stole the car.
The police said when they are questioning Breona, about 15 minutes after talking with her, Deputy Juan Canino heard a baby crying in the trunk.
“So, I didn’t think maybe it was something in the car, but I kept hearing it, and that’s when I (realized) there’s a baby in the trunk, so I grabbed the keys, opened the trunk and there he was,” Canino said. “I was very surprised.”
“The child was actually lying on top of a hedge trimmers which are about 12 inches long and are used to cut bushes,” Broward County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Tom Hinton said. “There was an old rusted tire iron that the child was lying on top of and a bunch of other debris. Even in plastic bags and everything, it could have suffocated the child in the back of the car.”
Breona told police she hid the baby in the trunk because she was afraid she would get a ticket for not having the child in a car seat, so she attempted to hide the baby. Police concluded that Breona Watkins told her 14-year-old relative, who was also in the car, to push the baby through the trunk’s back seat panel before she was pulled over by police.
Her little baby was unharmed.
Her aunt says that Breona is a great mother and just made a very horrible mistake.
“This situation is very tragic. She is a good mother, a good child,” she said. “She lives with me, so I see it firsthand, and this is by no means, as far as saying that she’s a bad mother, I think. She’s a great mother.”
Breona is currently being held on $7,000 bond.
