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The six-year-old girl’s mother and her boyfriend were each charged with desertion of a child and abandonment of an animal, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.
DELTONA, Fla. — A mother and her boyfriend were arrested on Friday after deputies found a six-year-old girl wandering alone with her dog in Deltona, Florida.
In a news release, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said the six-year-old girl’s mother and her boyfriend were each charged with desertion of a child and abandonment of an animal.
Around 4:30 p.m., deputies responded to a woman’s home near Vann Park in Deltona after she reported the girl and her dog wandering in the front yard.
“The girl said she was hot, thirsty and hungry, so the woman and a neighbor brought her food, water, toys and clean clothes,” deputies said. “Deltona Fire Rescue responded to check her vitals and confirm she was OK.”
Deputies reportedly learned the girl’s mother and her boyfriend dropped her off in the area that morning. She also told deputies she was “homeless” and “does not attend school.”
The sheriff’s office provided bodycam video of their encounter with the six-year-old and her dog, as well as the arrest of her caretakers.
“Am I going to go in the police car?” the girl asks deputies.
“Yeah, we’re going to take you for a ride!” a deputy responds.
The girl was then taken to the Volusia Family Resource Center before her grandparents were identified and contacted to take custody, the agency said.Â
Around 1 a.m. the next day, members of the Deltona Crime Suppression Team tracked down the mother and her boyfriend before arresting them.
The full bodycam video can be viewed below:
