ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—A 3-year-old girl on a mission to get ice cream was thankfully OK after a motorist found her unattended on East Palisade Avenue, then called the cops, at 11:20 p.m. on April 3, a police source said.
But after a Bennie’s Restaurant employee found the girl unattended again, two days later, while taking a break, police charged her mother with child endangerment.
Maria Ramirez was released on a summons and the state’s child protection and permanency division was contacted April 5, after the child once again left her family residence at 10:16 p.m. The restaurant worker saw the girl getting closer and closer to the roadway, police said, and with knowledge that there had been a similar incident earlier in the week, the child was quickly reunited with family. Ramirez had believed the girl was at home in bed.
In the first incident, Ramirez and father Noberto Garcia apparently left home without telling family, leaving the girl in the care of relatives, who reportedly thought she was with her mother. Child Protection was also contacted after that incident, and the girl was returned to her parents.