Police said a northeast Arkansas woman was cited on a charge of endangering the welfare of a minor Friday after she left a 4-year-old in a hot car for about an hour in a Walmart parking lot.
Officers responded shortly before 8 a.m. after a customer at the store at 1911 W. Parker Road saw the girl locked in the vehicle unattended, according to a Jonesboro Police Department report.
The car's owner, a 36-year-old Jonesboro woman whose name was not released, was called to unlock the doors and remove the child, who appeared to have red cheeks, an officer noted.
Authorities reported the outside temperate was 72 degrees with a heat index of 84 degrees.
The woman said she had been in the store for only a few minutes and had left the girl alone because she would not wake up, according to the report.
However, an employee told authorities that the woman had been in the store since 7 a.m., about an hour before she was arrested. The Arkansas State Police's child abuse hotline was notified.
The woman is scheduled to appear in court July 25.
