A mother was arrested after authorities say she left her young child in a car while she was in a Deerfield Beach bar.
Jennifer Potts, 29, was arrested early Monday at Padano Bar & Grill on W. Hillsboro Boulevard on a charge of child neglect without great bodily harm, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said.
According to an arrest report, authorities received an anonymous complaint of a baby left alone in a car in the bar's parking lot. Deputies arrived and found the child in the back seat of a black Hyundai around 1:30 a.m.
The car was off and the windows were rolled up, the report said. Potts told deputies she had gone into the bar to get her cellphone and driver's license and had left the child alone for "a couple seconds," the report said.
But deputies noted in the report that "Potts smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking an unknown amount of alcohol."
The child was checked out at a local hospital and was physically unharmed.
"This child wasn't sleeping, wasn't resting, he was screaming, scared and alone," BSO spokesperson Gina Carter said. "We know her comment about being gone a few seconds isn't accurate and it's dangerous to leave a child alone."
Potts was booked into jail, where she was being held Monday afternoon. Attorney information wasn't available.
