Mom Arrested for Leaving Kids Alone in the House While She Went Out for Food

Thanks a lot, nosy neighbor.

Dreamstime

Well this will sure teach moms everywhere not to, um, feed their kids: a mom was arrested in Delaware for leaving her children, ages 8 and 9, alone at their vacation rental home while she went to pick up from a restaurant about five miles away.

As Delaware Online reports:

Susan L. Terrillion, 55, of Olney, Maryland, was arrested and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of her children on Tuesday, according to Rehoboth Beach Police Lt. Jaime B. Riddle.

Police responded to the 200 block of Country Club Drive around 7:30 p.m. for a report of two young children left alone at a residence.

A witness told police that he made contact with the children when their dogs ran into Country Club Drive in front of his vehicle, Riddle said. The witness stopped to help the children get control of the dogs and learned they were alone, Riddle said.

So really, you have to blame the dogs. Or a guys who calls the cops simply because he came into contact with unsupervised kids and felt the knee-jerk compulsion to get the authorities involved. Or the authorities, who feel compelled to arrest moms for trusting their kids to take care of themselves for a little while.

The mom was arrested, charged and released on $500 bond. What a lovely vacation.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

That dog had one job.

[Swiss Servator]

Get the owner arrested?

[DaisyBriggs]

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[$park? is totally a Swifty]

And they won't be vacationing there ever again, right?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

We are doomed!

[(((Renegade)))]

The photo in the linked article and the photo in the post don't quite... correspond.

[mad.casual]

If we get a mug shot of an homely, overweight, 55+ single mother of two I swear to God...

[Swiss Servator]

+1 Crusty

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Gah I shudder thinking about the time I was 10 and shattered my femur, I was bed ridden for two months and one day pa goes to pick up my sister from school, he tells me he is doing this and I'm watching TV, "Yeah whatever dad.." 15 minutes later I'm screaming throughout the house, "Dadaaaaah bring me down some fooooooood!!!!" After the no response for a few minutes I get really worried and call the cops assuming that my dad is incapacitated upstairs.

He returned before the cops and I had to explain what he did, he gave me that ole 'god you're fucking dumb look' and called the station, the cops turned around -- this was 1998, today I would have got my father tossed in jail.... that fills me with self loathing; same circumstances would definitely yield different results today.

[Room 237]

My 12 year old son broke his arm a few weeks back. We were coming home Saturday afternoon and he saw some of his friends in the park and asked if he could play -- I said sure and my wife and I went home. 30 minutes later he broke his arm stumbling off a hover broad.

In the emergency room and someone not a doctor but with an officious look comes by to speak to us. I was figuring she was a social worker and our next step was arrested for not supervising a 12 almost 13 year old a block away from home.

Luckily it was just someone that specialized in pain issues for kids.

[Rod Flash]

My question is what the hell is a 55 year old woman doing with 8 and 9 year old kids? I'm a little older than that and have a 10 year old grandkid. And after being with her for a day or so I'm whipped! There's no way this woman is capable of dealing with those kids on a daily basis. Call CPS immediately!

[robc]

I am 47 and have a 7 month old.

[robc]

My wife is younger than me, but not that much younger.

[Crusty Juggler]

Pics? Thanks.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Isn't 7 months a little young?

[Crusty Juggler]

How dare you?!

[RBS]

No.

/Albert Daulerio

[HazelMeade]

IVF?

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's possible that she slipped them in just before menopause.

Or, you know, adoption.

[Crusty Juggler]

She could be grooming randomly kidnapped children before selling them into sexual slavery.

[Heroic Mulatto]

She could be grooming randomly kidnapped children before selling them into sexual slavery.

As usual, Japan has a jaunty tune about that.

[Swiss Servator]

*salutes HM, while a single tear of joy slides down cheek*

[Heroic Mulatto]

You get the live version as a reward.

[Jimbo]

Fraud!

[RBS]

I'm sure Hazel is also the sole arbiter of all things childbirth too.

[robc]

IVF.

But I am old school, I prefer Test Tube Baby.

[robc]

The good news is that when she asks me where babies come from, I can respond honestly with: "A lab in Nashville".

[Heroic Mulatto]

The silver lining being that while Terrillion shouldn't have had to undergo such an ordeal, the fact that she is most likely solidly upper middle class lends hope that as such overzealous policing begins to effect what has always been one of the most reliable engines of cultural change that we shall see a reversal of this trend.

[straffinrun]

Sorry Mr. Gates, but we're gonna have to stop and frisk ya.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Skip or Bill?

[RBS]

Henry Louis

[straffinrun]

Obviously he packin'.

[Swiss Servator]

+1 beer summit

[Heroic Mulatto]

Skip was the only one who chose a drinkable beer during that meeting.

I'll chalk the "Lite" part up to doctor's orders or something.

[mad.casual]

Or a guys who calls the cops simply because he came into contact with unsupervised kids and felt the knee-jerk compulsion to get the authorities involved.

Sounds like he chose 'Leave no witnesses.' over 'Potentially face prosecution as a sex offender.'

[spqr2008]

And as sad as this is, that is pretty much instinctual at this point for a male, by himself, trying to help kids with no woman in sight. Predator stories have scared the average yuppie mom so much that it's not worth trying to help a kid with a problem beyond looking for the nearest woman and then calling the cops, while standing a decent distance from the kid and not comforting them. Great society the media and stranger danger have created, huh?

[Tonio]

^THIS. Cannot be emphasized enough.

[RBS]

Did the dogs survive?

[sarcasmic]

The people who helped the kids were not cops. Otherwise the dogs would be dead.

[Certified Public Asshat]

But the cops did eventually show up. They got to arrest someone, so I suppose they were happy and did not feel the need to shoot the dogs too.

[HazelMeade]

Criminalizing single parenthood.

How the hell is a single mother supposed to supervise two kids and get anything done, cooking and feeding them included? I guess she's supposed to feed them pizza if that;'s the only thing that will deliver. But soon that will be illegal too.

The whole helicopter parenting thing perversely demands that women dedicate their entire lives to supervising and raising their kids. It penalizes women for having careers and goals outside of being a mother. This ought to be a major feminist issue, but the feminist orgs are too busy demanding free daycare, instead of a more flexible attitude towards parenthood.

[sarcasmic]

Not just mothers. Dads get screwed too.

[Mr. Flanders]

Dads get screwed in court way before ever getting a chance to leave their kids at home alone, though.

[Paloma]

When my brother and I were 8 and 10 years old, my mom had to be hospitalized for several weeks. There was no way he could take that much time off work to supervise us. He called my aunt to come over to watch us, but she got pissed off with us and left. Actually we were kind of glad, because she was kinda bitchy, and we managed just fine by ourselves. Glad no social services were around then.

[Rasilio]

That's because Feminists come in only 2 varieties on this front...

1) How dare you have had sex with a man you gender traitor, breeders like you should just be thrown in jail for having kids anyway so you deserve anything you get.

2) Nothing is more important than your role as a mother and it is your job to live every second of the day for your children to protect them from ever encountering anything ever remotely dangerous including dangerous ideas.

Either way they consider this woman being arrested a good thing.

[Mr. Flanders]

I don't understand what goes through people's minds when they call the police in this situation.

"Hey kids, I see that you're alone because your mother is getting food for you... now let me help you by trying to get your mother taken away from you for good!"

[sarcasmic]

Most people naively believe the police are there to help. They don't learn the truth until it is too late.

[Tonio]

As SPQR said above, though he didn't articulate it well: The guy may have been in fear for himself and called the police to protect himself from charges of attempted kidnapping or whatever.

[spqr2008]

And we also don't know if the guy is on a sex offender registry and wanted to keep himself clear of any kind of a hint of impropriety. So many people are on one for pissing in an alleyway or "statutory rape" of a clearly consenting partner (including their current spouses, in some cases), that he may have been either convicted of an offense in the past, or accused. He also could be going through any number of legal proceedings where the hint of impropriety with children involved would sink his case.

[straffinrun]

We need to update Candide. From the TSA, CPS, IRS, NSA to you're local cops, there is no shortage of plausible disasters that you would have to draw on.

[Tonio]

Lenore, I wasn't able to read the linked article because of a BS survey. Do you have a link to another source for this?

Also, it occurs to me that it would be useful for someone (you?) to come up with training for latchkey kids that emphasizes things like: don't go outside when there is no adult present, don't open the door for strangers, etc. This could have been avoided had the kids stayed inside for the twenty minutes it would have reasonably have taken her to get dinner.

[Akshar]

If you help kids who are alone and don't call cops you might be charged as a sex offender. Best is to ignore the kid altogether.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Can we get the name of the Rat?

[vek]

I believe that public shaming of people like this guy may be the best way to deal with this sort of thing. These types of people care sooo very deeply about being "good people," and what others think of them. In many cases I think calling them out for being morons, and shaming the crap out of them for not having common sense may actually work. There's nothing wrong with being concerned about the safety of some kids, but it's how you go about that that's important. Calling the man ain't the right way.

It may not work for all, but perhaps some would be so hurt by being told they have no common sense they might let up a bit and think things through the next time before deferring to calling the cops. I do this to anyone I know who has a tendency to defer to "authority figures" instead of dealing with simple problems themselves. Sometimes it has worked, other times not. Can't hurt.

My girlfriend (sigh) has a tendency to do this in a lot of situations. I always tell her to man up and deal with her shit like an adult. She still defaults to running to the magical authority figure (boss at work, land lord about shitty neighbor, etc), but I've talked her out of it in numerous situations too. Maybe it's because she's a submissive type that it's just beyond her comprehension that she has the power to actually deal with things herself... Ugh.

[Long Woodchippers]

We've raised a generation taught to worship authority figures, who have no conception of how to take care of themselves.

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[Tommy_Grand]

he did not call the police to help the kids. he called the police to punish the mom because her kids lets the dogs out the dogs went in the road in front of his car and he had to slow down/ stop

Someone must pay for his inconvenience

[Tonio]

Not neccesarily.