Mom Stows Baby in Hot Trunk to Avoid Ticket, Cops Say

A 19-year-old Lauderdale Lakes woman without an infant car seat tried to outsmart cops Tuesday morning by hiding her baby in her trunk during a traffic stop.

Police say the 5-month-old was placed on top of a pair of hedge-cutting shears so the mom could avoid getting a ticket, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Broward County Sheriff’s deputies pulled the woman over early Tuesday morning for having a headlight out and for stopping in an intersection at a red light, forcing traffic to go around her, Local 10 reported.

When police attempted to pull over the car, the driver didn’t stop right away. The station says that’s because the mother had a 14-year-old passenger put the baby in the trunk through a backseat opening so deputies wouldn’t realize the baby was being transported without a car seat.

The problem with that, the Sun-Sentinel reported, was that a deputy heard the baby crying. When deputies opened the trunk, they found the baby on the shears, surrounded by other potentially dangerous items, including a rusted tire iron and used gas can. Deputies said the trunk was significantly hotter than the air outside.

The mom, Breona Synclair Watkins, also gave deputies a fake name at first since she doesn’t have a driver’s license.

Watkins was being held in the Broward County Jail Wednesday morning on $7,000 bond. She faces such charges as child abuse, resisting an officer without violence and operating a vehicle without a valid driver’s license, according to jail records.

Photo Credit: Breona Synclair Watkins/Broward County Jail