Pflugerville Women Left Kids Alone In Unheated Car: Police

PFLUGERVILLE, TEXAS — Police have accused a Plugerville woman of leaving her four children — including 1-year-old twin boys — alone while inside an unheated car in Round Rock over the weekend, according to a published report.

Britlei Punchard, 29, has been charged with abandoning or endangering a child after leaving her kids in the car on Saturday outside a Round Rock hotel, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The temperature dipped to 44 degrees that day, the newspaper noted.

According to a police affidavit referenced by the Statesman, Punchard left the children inside her Honda Pilot SUV parked outside the Extended Stay Hotel, 555 Insterstate 35 South, where she worked. A police officer spotted the vehicle just before 6:45 a.m., finding an infant asleep in a car seat, the newspaper reported.

The officer than woke up a 9-year-old in the car, who told the officer his mother was inside the hotel. Another 4-year-old boy also was in the car. Apparently, it's not the first time Punchard has been accused of such neglect. According to the report, the woman was cited for leaving her children inside the car at the same location on Jan. 31.

Punchard now faces the state felony charge that is punishable by up to two years in jail. According to records, Punchard was released from the Williamson County Jail on Saturday after posting bond on $20,000 bail.

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

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