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Woman arrested after leaving child locked in car while she shopped
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A Buford woman remains in the Newton County Jail after reportedly leaving her 5-year-old son locked in a car Saturday while she went shopping.

Officers from the Covington Police Department arrived in the parking lot of Kmart around 7:30 p.m. after receiving calls from concerned citizens who saw the boy sitting inside a car, with all the windows rolled up, crying. When they arrived they saw the boy, who was sitting in the backseat of the car, sweating and holding a towel.

The car was unlocked, so officers opened the doors to remove the boy. The car was parked in direct sunlight and it was approximately 89 degrees outside at the time.

Reports indicate that the boy told officers his mother told him to stay in the car, on the floor with a towel covering him so no one would see him.

After searching Kmart, the boy’s mother, Mary Amber Moore, 32, was found. She didn’t have identification, but reportedly told officers they could find it in a small pink bag in her car. While retrieving her ID, officers allegedly found mixed pills in an orange pill bottle that was supposed to contain Adderall, which was prescribed to her. According to reports, Moore said that the pills were the same thing, just different colors, and that they were both prescribed to her.

At one point Moore reportedly grabbed the pill bottle off the truck of the car and put all of the pills in her mouth. Officers were able to prevent her from swallowing all of them. She was arrested at this point and taken to Newton Medical Center. When asked, she reportedly told officers that she had taken the pills because she didn’t want to get charged with having pills in the wrong bottle.

After several hours at the hospital she was discharged and booked into the jail on charges of contributing to the depravation of a minor, obstruction of an officer and tampering with evidence. Moore’s son was taken to the police department, and turned over to the care of his uncle.