Louisiana woman accused of abandoning 3 kids in 3 Florida locations

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (TCD) --

West Palm Beach Police officers detained a woman after she allegedly abandoned three children in three different locations Monday. [Correction: TCD originally stated the children were the suspect's own. Miesha Perkins is not related to the children.]

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office announced Monday, March 1, that 36-year-old Miesha Perkins was arrested on three counts of child neglect.

According to the sheriff's office, they received a call around 5 a.m. Monday that a woman driving a Chevy Equinox SUV left an 8-year-old child at a gas station at Okeechobee Blvd. and Drexel Road in West Palm Beach.

At 9 a.m. the same day, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office received another call that a woman abandoned a 3-year-old child at a Publix market in West Palm Beach.

A 9:15 a.m., West Palm Beach Police responded to a call that the SUV was seen at the corner of Sunrise Ave. and North Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach.

When West Palm Beach Police officers arrived at the where the vehicle was parked, they saw an adult female walking away, leaving a 1-year-old child inside the locked SUV. She was arrested "almost immediately after walking away from the vehicle."

The sheriff's office said Perkins and the children's father were traveling to Palm Beach County from Louisiana, where Perkins is from. Authorities said "Somewhere along the way the father was removed from the vehicle."

WPTV-TV reported that the kids were uninjured, and were taken into the custody of the Department of Children and Families.

WPBF-TV reports the children's mother died in January, and Perkins, reportedly the mother's best friend, showed up at the house the next day to help. Why she and the father were traveling to Florida was unclear.

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