Cops: Mom Left Newborn In Auto While Gambling
Child spent nearly two hours in unlocked car
MARCH 7--A woman left her 27-day-old daughter in an unlocked car while she gambled for nearly two hours inside a Florida arcade, according to police who arrested her on a felony child neglect charge.
Police were dispatched Friday afternoon to a parking lot in Sebastian after a 911 caller reported that there was a child by itself inside a Nissan Sentra parked adjacent to Pirates 
Arcade, a 21-and-over “social club.”
When cops arrived at the lot, they found the newborn “sitting in a car seat alone,” according to an arrest affidavit, which noted that the vehicle was unlocked.
After officers were on the scene for 10 minutes, Bionca Lockett, the child’s mother, emerged from the arcade. Lockett, 32, initially claimed that a friend of hers was inside the car watching the baby “while she played in the arcade.”
When a patrolman advised Lockett that he would review surveillance camera footage to verify her account, “Bionca then changed her story.” Lockett reportedly admitted that she “left her child in the car alone with the windows rolled up and A/C turned on, thinking she would only be inside for a few minutes.”
The infant, cops reported, had “dried poop from poor cleaning, dried skin, lips were chapped, and she appeared to be malnourished.” Since Lockett did not have “adequate food for the child in the car,” police purchased baby formula to provide the infant with “nutrients and liquid to offset how dehydrated” she was.
Lockett was arrested on a pair of felony charges for leaving the infant alone in a car while she “gambled for approximately 1 hr and 44 minutes.” Lockett is being held in the Indian River county jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.
The arrest report does not indicate who is now caring for the newborn. A judge has ordered Lockett to have no contact with the girl, unless it is approved by the state’s Department of Children and Families.
Seen above, Lockett is currently on probation following her no contest plea in September to a felony grand theft count. Lockett was charged with stealing $1000 from a Chevron gas station where she worked. (2 pages)
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