Mom Is Arrested After Leaving Her Children Under The Age Of Four In A Hotel For 3 Days
A Pittsburgh woman was jailed after police said she left her three children under the age of four at a hotel for up to three days.
Tabatha Graczyk, 32, was jailed Monday on charges of endangering the children, who range in age from 8 months to three years old, CBS Pittsburgh.
Police said the children were left in the care of the woman's friends at the Days Inn on Banksville Road. The friends told police that Graczyk asked them to watch the children for a few hours Friday night but by Sunday the mother hadn't returned to get her children, according to CBS.
They tried to reaching Graczyk numerous times and twice she told them she would come back in a few hours, but never showed. The couple also said they told her the children were running out of food, clothing and diapers, CBS reported.
When they couldn’t reach her on Sunday, they called police. Authorities say the children were found alone in a room at the Days Inn.
When officers arrived, they found one child had open burn marks on their hands. A second child had previous burn marks and a third had no more formula, CBS reported.
The children were taken to a hospital as a precaution before being put in the care of Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF). The agency told CBS they had been looking for the children for about a month because of previous neglect complaints.
When Graczyk came to the hospital to get her children, she was arrested.
She told police she was looking for apartments and stayed with friends for two nights, according to the station.
Graczyk said she would fail a drug test because she had been taking Percocet for an aching tooth, but she didn't have a prescription.
She told authorities she didn't go to get her children because she fell asleep from taking the pills. Graczyk also told authorities that she was on probation for another neglect incident from 2014.
In that case, she said she was on methadone and one of the children overdosed, CBS reported.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 3
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