Shopping Mom Left Tot, Pot in Car, Deputies Say

TAMPA, FL – A 21-year-old Riverview woman faces criminal charges after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies say they found her 1-year-old son trapped inside her car outside University Square Mall.

According to the agency, deputies received a call from mall security around noon on Thursday about a child left in a car outside the Macy’s. When deputies responded, they learned that Jasmine Emani Jones left the boy in the car for about 40 minutes with the windows rolled up and the engine off, an email from the agency stated.

“Surveillance video showed that the child was unattended,” the email stated.

Once inside the car, deputies noted the vehicle “emitted the aroma of marijuana,” the email said. A check of the vehicle revealed less than 20 grams of marijuana inside the car, deputies said.

Jones was charged with felony child neglect and possession of marijuana.

The child was taken into protective custody and will be released to family members, the sheriff’s office said.

Jones had not yet been booked in to the Hillsborough County Jail Thursday afternoon. She was arrested in 2013 on petty theft charges, jail records indicate.

2013 Booking photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office