Cops: Mom arrested for leaving kids in car to drink at bar

Marc Cugnon | USA TODAY Network

An Oklahoma woman left two of her children unsupervised in a running car as she drank at a bar on a hot summer afternoon, according to the Apopka Police Department.

The Florida police arrested April King on Sunday afternoon and charged her with felony child neglect after she reportedly entered Frogger's Bar & Grill, visibly intoxicated, and abandoned her two and four year old in her vehicle.

"April King was known to the bar employees," said Sgt. Edwin Chittenden of the Apopka Police Department. "She usually drinks too much there and starts trouble, she isn't one of their favorite patrons."

According to Sgt. Chittenden, King entered the bar around 12:30 p.m. or 1 p.m. and ordered vodka. After she ordered, the bar manager noticed that there were two children inside her running car.

King's two-year-old daughter was still strapped into a car seat, while King's four-year-old son, at one point, leapt into the driver's seat and began to rev up the engine.

Quickly, the Frogger's employees on hand placed a call to the police. When officers arrived on scene they found King, still inebriated, outside of an AT&T store.

"The four year old started to blow into the breathalyzer that was required to start the car," Sgt. Chittenden added. "King has several DUIs from the past, and the kid blew into it like he knew what he was doing. An officer asked if he blew into it often and the mother shouted, 'No he does not'!"

The police suspect that King regularly instructs her son to start the car via blowing into the breathalyzer that controls its engine interlock device, however the Apopka Police Department is unable to prove it.

After King's arrest, her husband arrived from Oklahoma to retrieve the children, according to police.