Authorities: Woman left boy in hot car at Arkansas mall while she tried to steal clothes

19-year-old Sabrina Phommarath
19-year-old Sabrina Phommarath

A 19-year-old woman is accused of shoplifting at an Arkansas department store while a child waited in a hot vehicle outside, according to a report from the Jonesboro Police Department.

When officer Blake Anderson arrived at a Dillard’s store at the The Mall at Turtle Creek, 3000 E. Highland Drive, he found a boy who was “warm to the touch and appeared to be sweating” in a vehicle, he wrote.

The report states that footage showed that the vehicle’s owner, later identified as Sabrina Phommarath of Jonesboro, had been in the store for more than 40 minutes.

A Dillard's employee told police that the woman entered a dressing room with three pairs of pants and one shirt, then exited with two pairs of pants, according to the report. An officer found the remaining merchandise, valued at just under $270, inside the teen's bag, police wrote.

Phommarath was taken to the Craighead County jail, where she remained Tuesday morning, jail records show. She faces charges of shoplifting and first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

Caseworkers from the Department of Children and Family Services took the child to their office, police said. It is not known whether the 19-year-old has custody of the boy.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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