In December, a Chicago area mother took her three daughters and their little friend to a Salvation Army kettle in front of a Wal-Mart to drop off money the girls had collected. On the way, the 2-year-old daughter fell asleep in her car seat.
Rather than wake her, Treffly Coyne parked in the fire lane, turned on her hazard lights, and locked the car with the slumbering toddler inside while she escorted the other girls to the bell ringer to make their deposit. She was 20 or 30 feet away from the vehicle and gone for just a few minutes.
When she returned to her vehicle, a community service officer told her she was under arrest, not for parking in the fire lane, but for child endangerment.
In response to a series of incidents involving people leaving children in hot cars, in June of 2002 a rebuttal presumption was added to the Illinois Child Endangerment statute stating that any person who leaves a child six years of age or younger, unattended in a motor vehicle for more than ten minutes has committed a Class A misdemeanor. The statute further defines "unattended" as either not accompanied by someone fourteen years or older, or if accompanied by someone older than fourteen years the child must be within sight of that person.
Coyne maintains she was within sight of her vehicle at all times. Bizarrely, while she was being arrested and transported to jail, the girls she had taken to the Salvation Army kettle were left alone in the parking lot and later found huddle on a bench inside Wal-Mart, too terrified by the police officers to ask for help.
Apparently it's okay to leave kids in parking lots, just not in locked cars?
The incident has sparked much interest on internet with some calling Coyne a horrible mother who deserves to lose her children and others wondering what is up with the police department. The case will go to circuit court on March 13th.
Thanks for the tip, Jen!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Dawn 3-07-2008 @ 6:57PM
Our society has gone insane. I have had people curse at me for not pushing my emptied cart 50 feet to a cart corral, with them not caring if my kids were in my vehicle.... and we've had a few of these ridiculous arrests in our area in the past. There is no pleasing some people. Why is it okay to leave your kids in the car while you go up to pay for your gasoline? We have turned into an inmate culture, with Big Brother playing Warden, and all the other inmates helping to damage everyone around them. The cops who left those children alone and traumatized should be fired, or charged with child endangerment. Tit for tat, right? Or are they above the law? Oh, wait! That's right, they are...... God help that mom and her family. The trauma of gov't abuse is rampant in this country. Those kids will never look at a police officer as a "helper" again, will they? Nice job, Officers.
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ezekeil49 4-27-2008 @ 9:12PM
What it is coming to is a police nation where the general population is at the mercy of cops.They can charge you with a crime when no crime occured or vice versa. Check out this story where a 7 year old boy was a victim of 2 felony crimes that caused his death and the cops ignored these crimes and concluded that 7 year old Tyler James "caused his own death". To read about this mockery of justice visit, www.tylerjames.org thru yahoo search engine
Sabrina 3-07-2008 @ 7:06PM
Ugh, this always angers me. I really think you'd be an idiot to leave your kid in the car in the heat or cold, or if you can't see them, but the laws about this are getting a little ridiculous. I cannot, for instance, get both my kids in their carseats and then run back in my house to grab something I forgot. I park in my own driveway, less than 6 feet from my door and yet I'd have to remove them both, but it's ok if I were to let them play in the front yard while I ran inside to get a drink or answer the phone. They're safer in their carseats in that instance...this woman probably made a bad choice knowing that the social climate is, but I don't think she was an irresponsible parent. The police officer that managed to arrest her and leave her kids unattended did definitely do something wrong though. I can't imagine the woman didn't bother to mention to the officer that she had other children with her.
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Family Man 3-07-2008 @ 7:34PM
What happened in that parking lot was definitely child endangerment... by the POLICE. It seems that you had a decent and charitable family out together to do something nice and WHAMMO, the law rode in to help.
It doesn't seem like any child was in any danger until the police came. Then mom was in jail, the two year old was in custody and the cops just abandoned the other little girls.
How long will people let this kind of attack on parenthood and the family go on?
I would be really curious to see if, in the interests of child welfare, the Childrens Welfare Bureau has investigated the actions of the Crestwood Police in this matter.
Any mother or father with three kids or more knows what is going on here and why the mother not only did nothing wrong, she did everything right. It seems simply to be an attack on motherhood.
I am outraged!
Good luck to you Treffly Coyne. My family will keep you and your family in our prayers.
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kristin 3-13-2008 @ 5:44PM
I just really felt the need to reply to this issue. I have to agree that this situation is rediculous and a waste of taxpayers money. I think the police in Tinley Park Illinois are so busy harrassing innocent women and children that it is not surprising at all that their crime rate is high. I too have children, and too was harrassed by the Tinley Park police, for what? Walking down and asphalt path with my four children! We were walking back from the market, she had the audacity to come up with as many excuses as she could to pull me over while walking. I feel for this woman, fortunately I gave her my ID and answered her questions, or I too would be in the same situation as this woman. I must say I am glad that I was only staying in the area temporarily. she should have an apology given to her and her family for all the undue strain and stress caused by this event. Perhaps women and children are an easy target for the police that are too afraid to deal with the real criminals. I might also add that these police officers are setting a fine example in front of the children, I cannot begin to tell my children to trust them, when they spend so much time harrassing people. Children are not ignorant, they understand!
Ethel 3-07-2008 @ 7:44PM
I guess the question is, how does one write a law written to protect children without having incidents like this one? The truth is any time you leave you kids in a car unattended, however brief, is a bad thing. I don't think the cop who wrote up the citation knew how long the child had been unattended, or where the mom was for that matter. Should the officer ignored the law, just this one time? Or perhaps all the time?
Maybe some laws are ones that can be fudged... Maybe my taxes don't need to be paid....
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field 3-12-2008 @ 5:22PM
Ethel, as an arresting officer it is his JOB, NO ACTUALLY HIS RESPONSIBILTY, to find out the circumstances BEFORE arresting someone, I think he got over zelous....what about leaving the other children behind on thier own??? His job to serve and PROTECT them as well, all three of them, not just the one in the car. We have sexual offenders on LISTS in virtually every city in America, children in social services dissapearing and never being found, sexually molested children, kids being left alone at (what they consider to be a home) only to burn to death from a fire, and this mother is right there, with keys, alrms, and even locked car…..seems our efforts would be better spent dealing with the scum of society instead of good citizens. Time spent putting new laws in place to keep sickos off the streets so Parents would not be afraid to leave thier kids in a car, that close. WAKE UP! What a waste of my money! Taxpayer from Tennessee!
Marianne 3-23-2008 @ 12:40PM
I live in the town where this occurred. There is more to the story than you have read. The CSO (Community Service Officer) saw this mother park her car. She saw her get out with the other children. She saw her go to the Salvation Army kettle. She confronted her as she returned to her car. The CSO knew what the situation was from the beginning.
There are things known about this CSO that would further explain the overreaction to the situation, however, since there is a civil suit filed against her, I'm not at liberty to share them here.
Family Man 3-07-2008 @ 8:45PM
Ethel, you put way too much trust in the police on this one. Perhaps before the cops tore apart that family they should have tried to find that out. In this case the abscence of evidence would lead any rational person to take the prudent course of action and leave intact a family with a safe child.
Do you really condone the authorities storming into this families life and breaking it up, tearing a two year old baby away from her mom for no good reason... throwing mom in jail?
The police really messed up. They dropped a bomb on this family. I don't understand why they just didn't drop the charges and apologize once they saw the video from the Walmart that exonnerated the mother.
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Khadijah 3-07-2008 @ 9:05PM
It's so much going on nowadays, and this is cops priority!!! Go figure the states are the way they are now, if the mother was giving the chance to say I was standing right there next to the bell, seeing she was in view and give her a warning. Not that she was goofing off or something else crazy she was helping kids donate to charity and gets locked up in the process. So do the POLICE go to jail to for leaving the other kids in the parking lot...I think YES cause it is worse then what the mom did standing a few feet away they left the whole damn lot. So where's their citation?
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Judy 3-07-2008 @ 10:40PM
There is such a fine line, isn't there?
I guess the police have to do their jobs, and if they find a child alone in a vehicle they have to try to figure out what is going on. It seems to me, though, that if the mom was in plain sight and where she knew she could be aware of what was happening in the car, then the police should be able to exercise some discretion.
I do think most cases of leaving a kid alone in a car are unsafe and unexcusable, but at the same time there are cases where it is not. I used to unbuckle both kids and take them back with me if I had to get into my house for a forgotten item. Then I realized that if they were both buckled, in the time it would take me to unlock the door and grab my sunglasses no one - especially someone unaccustomed to unhooking those specific car seats - would be able to get them out of their seats!!! So, yes, they were probably safer in their car seats than coming back in with me.
(Also, I couldn't figure out how to safely unload groceries without leaving them in their car seats while I take groceries in. Maybe we should have had a playpen.)
Of course the police seriously messed up by leaving the kids alone.
And you know, aren't kids younger than 14 allowed to stay home alone sometimes? To go places on their own (I know I was when I was much younger than that)? But they can't be left alone in a car while Mom goes in to pay for gas or drop off a bill payment?
That seems a little much to me.
I don't know where the line is though, and I guess the gray area is always the problem.
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Michele 3-07-2008 @ 10:46PM
Wow! Well I really don't think she should have been arrested but she should have been fined for both parking in a fire lane and leaving her child in a locked unattended car.
When I was in high school (back in the early 90's) I worked at Staples and I can't tell you how many people would leave thier sleeping child in the car with either the car locked and running or turned off and running regardless of the weather outside. For some reason though it happened more often in the summer when it was burning hot out. Every time I was required to call the police the second the parent walked away from the car and every time I did the police would make it to the store faster than the parent would finish doing whatever they claimed would only take a minute.
I don't care what you have to do and for how long, leaving a young child or baby in a locked car is NOT ok EVER. I've seen way too many babies wake up screaming because they were burning up from the hot car and a few minutes is an eternity for a screaming baby. I've also seen toddlers and young kids trying to get out of a locked car and some that were able to do so and I had to run out to make sure the kid wasn't stolen or crushed by another car. Kids are short and can't be seen by cars backing into spaces.
I want to know...is waking a sleeping kid really worth the risk of losing your kid or your kid getting hurt?
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Judy 3-08-2008 @ 1:06PM
Do you think there is no gray area?
What about using Pay at the Pump while filling up with gas? Should you leave the kids in the car then? I would *never* leave a small child alone in the car - sleeping or otherwise - if I had to go inside to pay for gas, but I don't take them out if I'm paying outside with a card. (And I would probably leave my 12 yo in the car if I just had to go in and pay).
Running back inside your own house, once the kids are strapped in the car seats and you realize your forgot something that's right inside the door? Safer to leave them there for 15 seconds or take them in with you?
At an ATM that you can't drive through? Park the car, walk 10 feet, get your cash and get back in, or take the kids out and have to keep track of the kids, your purse, your card, your cash, and make sure there is no one coming up behind you to take your money and/or kids?
I'm very vocal about never leaving small children inside a car if you have to go inside somewhere. There was a case in Missouri several years ago where a mom did just that, and the car was carjacked, the mom tried to pull the kid out of the car, and he ended up being dragged to death on the highway. No, I don't think any amount of convenience is worth that risk.
But is there no situation where it might in fact be safer to leave the kids in the car, within your sight, for a matter of seconds while you attend to something else?
toni 3-08-2008 @ 3:19AM
i think that if this mom was only 20 ft away the cops were completely out of line. i am wondering why she didnt mention the other children being left unattended though?
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Gabby 3-08-2008 @ 2:09PM
Situations like this are part of the reason why parents are overprotective of their children. I'm way more protective of my kids than my parents were of me, because they didn't have the cops breathing down their necks all the time, and overreacting to every little thing. I have to train my children to be more wary of cops than of your average stranger on the street. I have to teach them that if they are in trouble, a cop is the LAST person you want to ask for help. Stories like this are so run-of-the-mill, now, it's barely even news anymore. It's just the way life is.
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Michele 3-08-2008 @ 2:12PM
Ok, NEVER was a bit much since walking 10ft away or running inside your home to grab something is totally different than say running into a store to buy, drop off or return something.
For that you'd have to run across the parking lot, go in the store to grab an item, wait in line and hope the cashier is quick and there aren't that many people in line in front of you. That's too long! I don't think grabbing a pair of sunglasses or standing outside your car while you fuel it, or standing outside your car a few feet away while at the ATM is the same thing as relying on retail buisness to be slow so you can run back out to your child.
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Jan Bay 3-08-2008 @ 2:29PM
Wow, this seems like one of those times when the no tolerance rules may have gotten out of hand.
But....
What if the mom was distracted and "forgot" baby was in the car seat on a freezing hot or cold day.
What if, God forbid a car hit her or one of the other kids and nobody knew about baby in the car?
Is this worth taking a child away from loving parents? Not in my opinion, but can we really ignore the "what ifs"?
It's a really tough call. If I had the time to determine the "what ifs" on each and every decision I make in any single day I might never wash the baby's face! What if the face cloth was harboring fungus, etc. etc. I know that's an extreme analogy but if there's a single mom that views this that can't say "there but for the grace of God" my hat's off to her.
However, we know that zero tolerance rules are out there and it is much easier to comply and NOT park in fire zones and NOT to leave babies in cars no matter the circumstances. I suppose we have find ways to teach our children to be charitable while not breaking any rules.
Jan from http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/
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toni 3-08-2008 @ 3:50PM
so, my husband was outraged by this story when I explained it to him this morning. his take was that in this day and age, with cars and kids getting stolen regularly, it is irresponsible parenting to leave a child in the car even with locked doors and only 20 feet away. i was honestly surprised by his response, and by his insistancy that I NEVER do such a thing with our child. he feels the arrest was warranted, and he's usually very anti-police. i can see his point, though i'm not sure i fully agree.
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Uncle D 3-09-2008 @ 3:17AM
I"m surprised your comment is only the second to mention a car being stolen or kidnapping --- that was the thought that jumped in my mind first when I read the story.
I'm not saying she should have been arrested (fined, sure) but the police who left the other kids -what were they thinking?
but Judy, pay at the pump is different than this case or even going in to use a ATM. Pay at the pump you are next to the car. But even going in to the ATM, how long is the wait, how far. Cars get stolen and babies get taken-
that is a risk
now I'm not a dad, I'm an Uncle (who day cares for my niece and nephew during the week). And as an uncle I never want anything to happen to my niece or nephew least of all on my watch. If we are playing outside and I need to pee, they come into the entry way of the house. It's just to risky not to . I use th epay at the pump- but if we need something inside we all go in (they are 2 and 5)
and I'm not saying I don't understand why people run to the ATM or inside the house for something-- but I couldn't. I guess I'm lucky cause anytime I've gone somewhere with my niece the car door opens and she wakes up right away. But for me the hassle is far better than any risk
Should she have been arrested, no. I'm still in shock about the four kids being left at Walmart. I wonder how old they were? If I saw the police taking my mom away I wouldn't want to ask for their help either? It's a shame the officer couldn't of just talked to the mom, but I also understand that we do need laws to prevent children from getting hurt or kidnapped.
Also--- how long had she left the car. The law stated 10 minutes was a class A misdemeanor , dropping money in the kettle doesn't take ten minutes -- so you'd think by the law she'd of been fine (in eye sight/less than 10 mins.)
Judy 3-09-2008 @ 3:08PM
Uncle D, I wasn't thinking of indoor ATMs. I was thinking of places I have seen where the ATM is outdoors, on the side of the bank, but doesn't have a drive-thru. So you have to park *right in front of it* and walk to the ATM. You're really no further away than doing Pay at the Pump.
I just took to the comments that you should *never* leave your kid in a car. I think with pumping gas (not paying inside), the ATMs I mentioned above, or even running back inside your house (if you are in your own driveway and won't be inside for more than a second or two), it is probably in fact *safer* to leave your kids in the car. I know with my two - 4 and almost 2 - to have to keep track of them and make sure they don't do something dangerous or no one else hits them while I'm out at an ATM would be more dangerous than just making sure the car doesn't get stolen!