MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Four young children are in state custody after being left alone in a North Memphis mobile home park for hours Thursday.
Police said they found the kids, as young as 8 months old, in their home on Bauman Drive.
Dispatchers got a 911 call from what sounded like a child. Police looked into it and found out four young children were home alone.
Neighbors are fuming the mother is not being charged. They said the kids were scared, hungry and the baby’s diaper hadn’t been changed for hours.
“They are sweet kids, you know. They were out here playing with my grand babies yesterday. They’re sweet,” said neighbor Donna Williams
She and Lauren Webster were sitting on their porch when police surrounded their neighbor’s home just before lunch Thursday.
“They couldn’t get in, so they opened and pried the door open. That’s when they realized the kids were in there by themselves,” said Williams.
Williams and Webster said police asked them for help with the children, and when they went in the home, they said the place was messy, reeked of urine, the baby’s diaper needed changing, and the 6-year-old said he hadn’t been to school in a while.
“The baby was freezing and didn’t have any clothes on, but I put some clothes on it. She brought some milk over there. She got some milk from a neighbor and gave the baby some milk,” said Webster.
Police said the mother came home around 1 p.m.
WREG watcher her talk to her family and detectives, but she wouldn’t give us her side of the story. She told us to “get away from her door” when we knocked on it.
Right now, the mother isn’t facing any charges, which has these neighbors fuming.
“They should have taken her to jail. She left the kids,” said Webster.
Police are not releasing the mother’s name.
DCS said it’s working to find a safe home for the kids.
