Woman Leaves Her 2 Little Kids In Harrah's Parking Deck To Roam Downtown Joliet Overnight: Police

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet Police Department investigates its fair share of child endangerment crimes in a given year, but this week's arrest of a 25-year-old woman out of Chicago involves allegations she left her two small kids inside her vehicle that she parked in downtown Joliet's Harrah's Casino.

According to police spokesman Dwayne English, at 12:39 a.m. on Monday, the officers responded to the Harrah’s Casino parking deck at 151 North Joliet Street for a welfare check involving a woman and her two young children.

English said the officers located Tia Motley walking on Cass
Street near Ottawa Street, approximately half a block from her vehicle. Her children, ages 1 and 3, were found unattended inside the vehicle, which was turned off and parked on the deck’s second level, the arrest report showed.

Officers said Motley had been yelling at people in the 100 block of North Ottawa Street. She became irate when officers attempted to speak with her and was taken into custody without further incident, English noted.

Officers took protective custody of the children and later released them to their father. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was notified. Motley was charged with endangering the life or health of a child, processed at the Joliet Police Department, and released on a Notice to Appear in court.