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Inset: Marianne Isnar. Background: Body camera footage from the arrest of Isnar after she allegedly left her two children alone in her car while shopping at a Florida Dollar Tree (Lee County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida woman was arrested after she allegedly left her kids in a car for nearly 30 minutes while she shopped in a Dollar Tree store.
On Sunday, a witness contacted the Lee County Sheriff’s Office upon noticing two young children alone in a parked vehicle that was turned off at a business location on Homestead Road in Lehigh Acres, Fort Myers. Officers opened the vehicle doors and discovered the children secured in their seats inside the car.
The agency released body camera footage of the incident.
“You guys OK? Is it hot in here?” a deputy asked, to which the kids answered in the affirmative.
Shortly after police began conversing with the children, their mother, 42-year-old Marianne Isnar, emerged from the store. Isnar stated that she had only been inside for approximately five minutes.
“Five minutes? Because I’m hearing like 25 minutes and the car’s not on and the windows aren’t down,” the deputy said. “Any particular reason why you’re leaving the kids in the car?”
Another cop noted that while they’re water bottles in the car, nothing was inside them.
“Empty, empty, empty,” the deputy said.
Cops were wondering why Isnar did not seem more concerned, considering temperatures were in the upper 90s with a heat index in the triple digits. Firefighters measured the temperature inside the car at 100 degrees even after the doors had been open for 10 minutes, police say.
“You’d think there’d almost be a little bit more remorse,” one deputy said.
“Zero,” the other deputy retorted.
Isnar was arrested on a charge of child neglect and taken to the Lee County Jail where she has since posted a $1,500 bond. The kids were released to a family member.
“This woman chose to leave her children in a car during one of the hottest days we have had in Southwest Florida this year,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said. “Let this serve as a clear message, we will not hesitate to hold people accountable for putting a child’s life at risk. We are grateful these children are okay.”