Olga Garay's babysitter looks suspiciously like a bedroom closet

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 26-year-old St. Lucie County woman was arrested on a child neglect charge after a 1-year-old girl was found in a bedroom closet, deputies said.

Deputies were called to Olga Garay's home Thursday after receiving an anonymous call that the toddler was home alone.

According to an arrest affidavit, Garay left the girl in a bedroom closet on a box with a blanket used as padding. The affidavit also stated there was no electricity in the home.

While deputies were at the home, Garay showed up with four other children. Garay claimed she was only gone for five minutes to get her other children from the bus stop, deputies said.

According to the affidavit, the anonymous caller told deputies Garay leaves her children alone at home every day.

http://www.wpbf.com/news/21113026/detail.html

Sheriff Ken Mascara said in a statement “Florida Department of Children and Families workers removed five children from the home. Their ages are 13 months, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years, 7 years.”

Deputies said they learned that the 13-month-old girl and the other children often were left alone in the home.

According to the arrest affidavidt, a deputy came to the home about 3:18 p.m. and found Garay coming home with four chilldren she said she was walking back from a bus stop. Garay told the deputy she left her youngest child alone in the home for five minutes on a box with a blanket for padding because it was too hot to take the child with her.

The deputy said he noticed the home was clean and there was plenty of food but no electricity. A bedroom air conditioner was running on power from an extension cord to a nearby home. Garay told deputies the children’s father was in Mexico and she was unemployed and living on food stamps, the affidavidt said.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/sep/...sted-on-child/

[biteme]

clean house and fresh food, could be a lot worse

[lundwall1]

If you can't care for them then don't have them - especially so many. either have "safe sex" or give them up to a loving family that really wants children and can provide a good and stable home. I understand being poor and scraping by, I know it's hard - but that is absolutley NO EXCUSE for leaving BABIES alone - and in a CLOSET??

[petrina]

clean house and fresh food, could be a lot worse

wait, bite me, are you being sarcastic? sure you are.

bc tho i sort of see your point, arent you the one who is always saying that CPS is NOT doing their jobs? bc this time they did. so i am a bit confused.

[biteme]

wait, bite me, are you being sarcastic? sure you are.

bc tho i sort of see your point, arent you the one who is always saying that CPS is NOT doing their jobs? bc this time they did. so i am a bit confused.

Don't be confused, clean house, plenty of fresh food, just poor not a crazy abusive meth nut

Safe enough let's take the children, these are the cases CPS loves to deal with, children probably well mannered and easily handled
keeps them far, far away from meth land, where children are not removed and would give anything to have been in this environment
deferent degrees of abuse, I feel this one was minor compared to what we usually read on here, Don't agree with what the mother was doing, but minor compared to some of the stuff I've been reading lately
I'd take her as a mother over any I've read about in the last month
doesn't make what she did acceptable, but I'll take her over all the others, where children weren't removed that we've been reading about

[CrazyinLoveWithMyKids]

Hey you know, we have all made mistakes in our lives and sometime some people just make the worst mistakes..I had 4 small children all 2 years apart and I know how hard it can be. I don't condone her doing this, I just think she is young and maybe she did it once for whatever reason and because nothing happened, she thought everything would be ok. really stupid, i know, but I feel for her, really, I do. I used to let my kids do things when they were younger, and so was I, that looking back today I know was so stupid and could have had the worst outcome ever and would never dream of doing them now, but aven't we alll?

[AngelFire]

clean house and fresh food, could be a lot worse

agreed! There are countless moms that actually hurt them. Now I would never agree to leave a toddler in the closet. She should have taken baby with her. What if there was a fire, or something equally as bad, then what?

[Halfwaythere]

I remember when I was 3 years old and getting in the car to go to the store with my mom. My new baby sister was no where to be seen so I questioned my mom about it and she said that my sister would sleep the entire time we were gone... even at 3 I was horrified! My sister was in a crib and not in a closet, but being poor isn't a crime.
I would NEVER leave a child alone. As much as it sucks to wake up a sleeping baby, I would chose it every time. BUT...

Unless she has prior encounters with CPS I think maybe some parent education classes would have been a better route than removing the children from the home.

[Chaindrive]

My dad and stepmom would go to parties when I was young (they got married when I was 4). They would leave me in the car sleeping in the backseat until they were ready to go home.

Sleeping in the backseat.
Alone.
For hours.

There wasn't much crime then 45 years ago, but...still.

[Silvahalo]

Their ages are 13 months, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years, 7 years.”

This is so terrible, the kids all taken from their mama....I just don't think that was necessary. You know, I have no mercy for deadbeat, methhead, beating, bitch mama's but this woman doesn't appear to be any of those. She seems scared and quiet frankly terrified as she realizes her babies were all taken from her and IF she isn't legal, damn......just damn.

I can only imagine how very difficult it would be to be in this exact situation. Basically a single mother with a husband MIA in Mexico may or may not be trying to get a job and send money back home. I feel for her but I do not condone leaving a young child alone. Though her leaving the child in the closet as she did seems like she was concerned to keep baby contained....maybe no crib? Anyhow, unless baby wasn't walking yet, (and that is all possible, my baby didn't walk until 16 mo.), it would be hard to keep baby to stay in one spot.

She came back with the kids and her house was kept and clean and food for the kiddos. I hope she gets her children back and she gets help to keep her family together. Gosh, this is so sad.