A Pembroke Pines mother was found intoxicated and incoherent in a car while her two young children were in the back seat, police said.
Carolina Buitrago, 39, appeared in bond court Monday on child abuse and child neglect charges.
On Easter, a police officer found her passed out in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle as her 4-year-old and 2-year-old sons sat in the back, according to an arrest report. A nearly empty bottle of vodka was discovered near Buitrago and the car was running, police said. Buitrago slurred her speech when she was awakened by the officer.
The officer said the two young kids seemed frightened and the older child had scratch marks on his leg. The 4-year-old told police his mother pinched him really hard for no reason while in the car, police said.
An arrest report revealed that before police arrived, one of the children rolled down the car's window and asked someone to help them wake up his mother.
A witness said the children were covered in sweat. The witness told police the mother woke up, took one of her sons from the back seat and began to hit him. Witnesses said the mother then got back into the car and passed out again.
Both children were taken into custody. A judge ordered Buitrago to stay away from her sons. She was ordered held on $1,000 bond and required to take a drug and alcohol test once a week.
Courtesy of our news partner at NBC Miami
