Florida Mom Arrested After Her 6-Year-Old Son Gets Lost Trick-Or-Treating Alone

MAITLAND, FL — A sick mom who dozed off woke up to a nightmare scenario after her young son got lost when she let him go trick-or-treating on his own.

According to an arrest report, Jessica Anne King suited up her 6-year-old boy in an astronaut costume on Halloween and sent him on his way without a cellphone or watch, which may have come in handy since she told him to be home by 8 P.M.

King, 38, then fell asleep. Around 10:30 P.M., a man and woman found the child, who explained his mom was “resting” and he had been wandering around the Orlando suburb of Maitland “since the sun was out.”

Though the child knew his address, he didn’t know how to make the roughly half-mile trip back to his house.

The report noted the couple got the thirsty boy a bottle of water and he “immediately chugged” it down. They then called police and accompanied the little trick-or-treater home to King, who “seemed unfazed by her child being alone.”

When questioned if it had been a wise decision to let her son go out on his own, the mother told cops she “guessed not."

King was placed under arrest and booked into the Orange County Jail on a criminal charge of child neglect. She later posted bail.

The boy was turned over to neighbors for care, and the Florida Department of Children and Families is now investigating the incident.

Read more: Orlando Sentinel