Mother Of Toddler Left At Target Charged

EASTON, MA — A Maine woman who police said left her toddler in a shopping carriage at a Target parking lot over the weekend has been charged with child abandonment and endangerment.

Easton Police Chief Gary Sullivan said the the 27-year-old woman from Acton, Maine, who is not being identified as to protect the child's identity, left the shopping center without her 17-month-old boy Saturday. The boy was found around 1 p.m. by a customer, who stayed with him until police arrived.

About an hour later, police received a call from one of the mother's friends saying the child had been forgotten in the parking lot.

The mother told police she left Target along with three friends having believed one of her friends put her son in his rear-facing car seat. She drove by herself to Plymouth, and when she got there she realized her son wasn't in the car.

The child was not injured and was evaluated at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. His mother was granted custody of him later in the evening after an investigation the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

The mother is scheduled to appear in Taunton District Court.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)