Mom charged after kids under age 6 walk to police station looking for ride
March 06--FARMINGTON -- Three children under the age of 6 who walked to the town police station looking for a ride to school are in foster care after they were taken from their mother, who was arrested on child endangerment charges Tuesday.
Katarina M. Short, 26, of Main Street, was charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child for leaving her children unattended for approximately two hours and one count of unsworn falsification for providing police with false information about the incident.
Around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, police received a report of three small children walking down Main Street. Lt. Jay Drury recalled the weather was extremely cold that morning, with temperatures dipping below 0 degrees.
As the officer who received the call was heading out to check on the children, all three of them appeared in the police station lobby, asking for a ride to school.
Police spoke with the children, two boys, ages 5 and 4, and a girl, 1. Their mother had left them home alone while she left to run an errand. Police determined they had already been alone for about an hour before arriving at the station.
"They were in good spirits, but a little chilly," Drury said.
"I have to give the 5year-old a lot of credit. He acted older than his years," Drury said, adding that the oldest boy had dressed his brother and sister in boots and jackets appropriate for the cold weather before taking them out in search of a ride to school.
Police spent the next hour with the children. They called in Farmington Ambulance and EMS who checked out the children and medically cleared them. The officers provided the children with a warm breakfast from Crowley's Variety and Grill and toys from the Farmington Recreation Department.
A single mother, Short, arrived at the station around 8:30 a.m. after receiving several voicemails from police.
Short, who said she left the children with a baby sitter so she could run an errand, would not elaborate on what the errand was. Through investigation police determined no baby sitter had been called in.
Police applied for and were granted an arrest warrant for Short on the four charges. She was arrested later Tuesday and released on $4,000 personal recognizance bail.
Drury said Short seemed apologetic after the magnitude of the situation sunk in.
The three children were taken from her custody and placed in foster care through the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). They will remain in foster care, with no contact with Short, through at least March 18, when she is scheduled for arraignment in Rochester Circuit Court.
The Farmington Police Department was assisted by DCYF, Farmington Ambulance, Farmington Recreation Department, and Crowley's.
Copyright 2014 - Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H.
