Police: Woman leaves baby in taxi while robbing store

Robin Brown | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

WILMINGTON, Del. — A woman robbed a Delaware convenience store at gunpoint Tuesday, while her 1-year-old daughter and an acquaintance were in a waiting taxi, state police said.

Amanda Paoletti, 29, of Wilmington, Del., was arrested after police tracked down the taxi and its driver — who was unaware that her quick stop at a Wawa was an armed robbery — gave police the address where she was dropped off afterward, Sgt. Richard D. Bratz said.

The incident occurred shortly before 3:30 a.m. Tuesday at a Wawa in the Bellefonte area of Wilmington, Bratz said.

He said Paoletti pointed a handgun at a 19-year-old woman at the counter and demanded cash. The clerk gave her an undisclosed amount from the register, Bratz said.

The Wawa employee told police the woman fled in a dark-colored boxy-style minivan cab, he said.

Bratz said Paoletti had left her baby and an acquaintance in the cab during the armed robbery.

When police went to where the cab driver dropped them off, they learned the acquaintance, who owns the house where she lives, had no knowledge of what she was doing, Bratz said.

When police conducted a search, they found that Paoletti had an undisclosed amount of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, he said.

She was charged with first-degree robbery, endangering the welfare of a child, cocaine possession and drug paraphernalia possession.

Paoletti was committed to Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle, Del., after failing to post $8,000 secured bail.