PARKS Children - 1 and 6 yo - Bartlesville OK

A 26-year-old woman faces child neglect charges after allegedly leaving
her two young children inside a running car while she went shopping.

It happened Saturday morning at a shopping mall in Bartlesville. Karie
Dawn Parks allegedly told her children to stay in the car and she would
only be gone a few minutes. But, police say she was gone a lot longer
than that.

Investigators say while Parks was inside shopping, her three year old
daughter got out of the car and started wandering across the parking
lot.

The assistant manager at Camille's saw the shirtless little girl
wandering in front of the mall like she was looking for someone. Police
picked up the little girl and found a six-year-old sibling sitting in
the car.

After searching the mall, police arrested Parks, who says she now lives in Nevada.

"She was not un-cooperative," says Bartlesville Police Chief Tom
Holland. "She admitted she made a mistake. But, it was a serious
mistake that called for an arrest. So hopefully juvenile services will
counsel her and the children."

The children were placed in protective custody. And, even though she
has bonded out of jail, Parks has been advised that for now she can
only have supervised visits with the children at the discretion of the
Department of Human Services.

Initially, police say Parks told them she only spent a couple of
minutes in the mall to exchange jeans. She later admitted to going to
several stores to try on clothes. She spent 51 minutes inside the mall.

Chief Holland says they patrol parking lots frequently to make sure
children are not left in cars. Before this incident, he says they made
two other arrests this year of people who left children in parked cars.