Omaha police find cold, crying toddler alone in parked car (you won't believe this one)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20140102/NEWS/140109798/1016#omaha-police-find-cold-crying-toddler-alone-in-parked-car

By Kevin Cole Published Friday, January 3, 2014 at 1:00 am / Updated at 9:32 am

A 2-year-old child found cold and alone Wednesday night in a parked car near 50th Street and Ames Avenue has been taken into protective custody.

Officer Michael Pecha, a spokesman for the Omaha Police Department, said officers were called to the parking lot outside a bank at 5018 Ames Ave., about 6:30 p.m. to check on an intoxicated woman who was on the ground. As officers called for an ambulance, they noticed a vehicle in the middle of the lot with the engine off, the lights on and the driver's door open.

Inside the car, they found the woman's daughter crying and cold to the touch, Pecha said. The child was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center and her mother, Kimberly Deleau, 41, of Omaha, was taken to Immanuel Medical Center.

FULL story at link.

[MADem]

3. You don't need to call her the bee word, now.

And she's obviously an alcoholic who is going to pay for this poor judgment in a big way.

But where's your scorn for the husband? He was there, too, after all...so why aren't you calling him names and wanting to show his drunken ass some what-for, too?

[jschurchin]

5. I'm trying to be politically correct.

I really wanted to use the "C" word but I was afraid I might offend someone. And your right, I missed the complete asshole old man who is a bigger jerkoff than drunk ass B**ch he's married to.

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A 2 YEAR OLD CHILD HERE. A FUCKING CHILD.

I thought I was being quite nice to be honest.

[MADem]

7. Well, I'm not gonna hit the button but someone might.

I've seen that happen so you might want to edit your subject line.

I think it's dreadful that the child was raised in such an unhealthy environment, and I think it is a good thing that the CPS have her and she's in a safe location. I do wonder if she has siblings, though, because, as I said, it's odd for older parents of a single, solitary child to be fuck-ups like that. Having a child in the late thirties is like winning a lottery these days, especially with all the additives in the food fucking up one's reproductive abilities.

There's something seriously wrong with those parents. They need intervention for themselves, and they don't need to be responsible for little kid(s), either.

[jschurchin]

9. Here is the thing MADem

What would have been better?
"This poor woman must have had a medical issue"
That must be why she and her medically issued husband left there 2 year old, who honestly can fend for itself. Let us all remember those parents are having a medical issue.

Would that have been better?

I'm sorry, I don't roll like that. I called it like I saw it, I'll take my punishment. But I WILL NOT under any circumstances, change it. It's exactly the description I use for any waste of a female human being.
Women are nurturing, caring, loving and wonderful human beings. This thing is none of those. If it was, the baby wouldn't have been left in a open vehicle while the temperature outside at -2 degrees, now is it?

[El_Johns]

10. The best, most loving mother I ever met once told me she locked her baby in his room & left the

house because she was afraid she was going to kill him.

She'd had two other children with no problems but he was a fussy baby who cried non-stop & wouldn't be soothed by any of the usual means. She was sleep deprived and exhausted.

Was she a "waste of a female human"?

Her kids turned out very well & they all love her, as do her grandchildren, coworkers, etc.

Women (& men) are not just "wonderful, nurturing" or "wastes". People are not just one thing.

Is there any gray in your world?

[MADem]

11. Oh jeez, quit while you're ahead.

The woman is not a "thing," she's a fucked up human being with an addiction. She's lucky that she, her husband and her child didn't end up dead.

But she's a person, not a thing, and plainly a troubled one who is in need of some serious help, not scorn. No one died and that's a good thing, here.

[pacalo]

31. That was the way I was looking at this situation.

I hope this mother has some family support for taking in the children. This is probably the mother's rock-bottom point in her life to get the help she needs; sounds like a sad family situation.

[MADem]

33. Just a sad, sad thing, indeed.

Hopefully the kid either has a stable grandparent or other relative, or gets put in a good home for as long as it takes for the parents to get their act together.

[Heidi]

23. What descriiptor, if any, do you use for a waste of a male human being? (nt)

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. Shame on you.

Keep "rolling like that" and you'll end up with a flat.

[raccoon]

43. Probably the pregnancy was unintentional, especially if the mother is drinking. nt

[Niceguy1]

34. OMG Js

You just can't say that in a progressive forum, even if it is true lol.

[kcr]

35. OMG, so true!

You treat people with addiction like the scum they are instead of helping them. Stupid progressives! Where do they get these ideas? Then, maybe we can find more nearly dead kids in cars. Ohh.....

[Niceguy1]

37. she can get help in prison

Nobody is denying her help. Her behavior is more than an addiction..it is criminal and morally reprehensible. To pretend otherwise and blame it all on a medical condtion is a form of enabling.

[kcr]

38. To pretend otherwise is to scare other people out of getting the treatment they need

before they get to a point where they do the same thing. I don't think anyone was arguing she shouldn't be held criminally responsible. You know, I get being horrified by what happened. because this poor baby had to go through this. But the this idiotic meme that progressives are just moronic softies? I'm going to call out that crap every time. There are good reasons not to treat addiction like it's a morally reprehensible character failure.

[Mopar151]

42. Not in most jails......

"Detox" is the cell where they keep the pukey winos. Seriously - Jail is not the place to get help for mental health/substance issues - understaffed, overwhelmed, lousy childcare, no validation for your parking, and the juice bar is terrible.

[Niceguy1]

44. almost killing her baby

And herself warrants some time...it might the the rock bottom she needs

[MADem]

2. That sounds like a troubled family unit.

The parents are older. Usually, older parents are thrilled to have a child late in life, if they just have one. They tend to dote on the kid.

I have to wonder if this kid wasn't the ONLY kid, and there are more little ones at home of varying ages, being neglected as well...

[shaayecanaan]

4. In fairness

It happened to me once. I was tired and just sat down my toddler to watch toy story. They say you should never drink wine out of the bottle. Well I did, and normally it wouldn't have bothered me, but I had recently lost weight and had less body tissue to go round.

Decided to take a bath and passed out for an hour. Woke up to see my kid tossing paper rolls down the toilet. Could have been worse.

[HangOnKids]

17. Charming

[shaayecanaan]

41. well, it must be nice to be perfect nt

[HangOnKids]

49. Never said I was I was

[renate]

20. that's a tough thing to admit... thank you for your honesty n/t

[lpbk2713]

6. " ... the driver's door was open "

The wind chill was around 2 below zero at 1830 on Wednesday. {Link}

I'm glad they found the baby when they did.

I hope they put the "mother" in an unheated cell for a while.

[Scootaloo]

8. Why stop at an unheated cell?

I mean, you want tactile, visceral revenge, right? Why not call for a hand to be dunked in liquid nitrogen and smashed with a hammer? Or, oh, why not a little more old-fashioned, and tie her to a pole that you will then dunk into a frozen lake?



These parents fucked up because htey are ill. Alcoholism is a disease. And it's a damn shame that it is the child who could have paid the price for that problem. But calling for barbarity in response to this is fucking obnoxious.

[El_Johns]

12. Really. Most women are "nurturing, wonderful," but this woman is "waste". Must be interesting

to be so colorblind.

[moriah]

19. I have noticed women especially have higher standards for other women when it comes to childcare.

Women are supposed to take care of kids, not let them freeze in the kind of weather Nebraska is dealing with. The whole "maternal instinct" thing, I guess. We're usually willing to give guys a little bit of slack when it's neglect, not outright abuse. Not correct at all of us, and probably somewhat insulting to men.

[El_Johns]

27. I don't think so. I don't think most men would leave a kid in the freezing weather either.

But my issue has nothing to do with "standards" & more with black & white thinking -- that on the one hand there are the "nurturing women" & on the other there are the "complete waste women".

[moriah]

29. Of course most men wouldn't. But we hold women to higher standards in my personal observation.

They're *supposed* to be the "nurturing women". Deviation from that standard creates pretty intense reactions in people, and stronger than they create when we hear of men abusing kids from what I've seen -- and I seem to notice that the reaction is more intense when it's a woman doing the judging. Observation, not fact, of course... my observations may differ from reality.

Even grandmothers are held to a higher standard, and sometimes it's to the detriment of all involved. A very dear friend of mine lost her two boys on the same day while her mother was caring for them along with her infant daughter. The two boys worked together to unlock the door and get outside to an unfenced pond while she wasn't paying as close of attention as she wished she had been (was trying to change a diaper and move laundry from washer to dryer, meant she was out of earshot a few minutes.. which is all it takes). She wasn't impaired, but they'd snuck away from her before, and the judge used that as a reason to at first attempt to deny her plea bargain on charges of manslaughter. Yet a grandfather who left his grandchild in a hot car in a mall parking lot got probation.

All I can say is I'm glad this didn't have a fatal outcome.

[El_Johns]

30. Oh, now I see your point. Sorry it went by me the first time.

[TexasProgresive]

36. It happens

Children of alcoholics have been left in the car while Dad has a "few" in all kinds of weather. A few becomes a binge. This is not a gender thing. Alcoholic dependency is not limited to one gender.

[MADem]

13. What about the father? Does he get an unheated cell, or another beer?

It's real creepy how many people want to inflict some serious shit on Mom, but have nothing to say about DAD, who was there too and should have been looking out for his wife and kid, shouldn't he have?

I think these are some sad, messed up people and it is a wonderful thing that the child was found and taken into custody without dying of exposure or being seriously harmed. I hope those messed up parents get some help.

[The Straight Story]

15. You mean the step father?

The father was not mentioned.

People tend to be harder on the natural parents, though some may interpret that as sexist.

[MADem]

18. There was a "male parental unit" in proximity to the child.

Yet all the excoriation is directed at the woman.

I have to say--and I'm an old fart--I find that odd.

[Journeyman]

22. I don't find it that odd. . .

The excerpt in the OP has no mention of the male, so lazy readers skimmed through the four paragraphs of the OP, maybe caught a glimpse at some of the subject lines in the thread responses, and built their entire attack on the "irresponsible female" off that incredibly incomplete knowledge. We've both been here long enough to have seen this silly scenario played out countless times. This instance is no different. Ill-informed posters quick to anger at something they neither understand nor have taken the time to investigate. Hard to take them seriously, outside the recognition that their opinions are largely useless.

So no, I don't find my response to this odd at all. I've never given credence to either the willfully ignorant nor the manifestly useless.

[moriah]

21. It's not complimentary to men, but I've observed this often.

People, women especially, hold (other) women to higher standards than they do men when it comes to knowing how to take care of kids. The dad? Yeah, of course he should have stepped in, and I'm glad you agree he's just as culpable. But women who aren't good mothers are judged *very* harshly, often more harshly by other moms than they are by men or non-parents. It seems like people expect women to know better more often than they expect men to when it comes to providing proper care for kids.

I hope the mom managed not to drink in pregnancy, and like you said in other things, I wonder how many other kids are in the picture. That's pretty late-in-life to be having kids.

[MADem]

28. I'm pretty old, and I was raised by two parents.

There wasn't any of that "abdication of responsibility" thing going on, there were too many of us and both parents parented.

I just couldn't imagine my father standing by and doing nothing because it was "woman's work," with the exception of diaper changing, which he worked hard at avoiding by affecting a pressing need to do something else (easy gag reflex, I think).

[Barack_America]

14. It makes me so sad to hear of kids growing up in these families.

My son is 2, and he has it so much better than this little girl. She deserves the kind of life he has. I hope there is someone out there who can give it to her.

[ScreamingMeemie]

25. Me too. I always tend to internalize these stories.

I cannot wrap my mind around a lot of them.

[polly7]

40. I used to work in a bar in Estevan where couples, or a woman or man alone

would come in as soon as the bar opened and drink until we booted them out hours later. They were obvious alcoholics, and left their kids out sitting in the car winter and summer. Back then, once we found out, all we could do was send someone out to bring them into the lobby and phone the cops, who seemed to halfheartedly try to reach a relative or someone, then leave. Those kids had the run of the lobby. The owner of the hotel stopped giving them snacks after a while, but we always felt sorry for them. What a life.

[tammywammy]

16. I hope they find someone to look after that child, the parents obviously can't. n/t

[elleng]

26. I believe it.

Alcoholism is a terrible disease. Thank goodness police were called.

[The Straight Story]

32. More on the mother from a previous story

A little know charity here in Omaha gives homeless pregnant women a chance to get back on their feet.

It hasn't been an easy road for Kimberly Deleau. A divorce left her homeless-and fighting an addiction.

Deleau says, "That was a way to cope, to hide my feelings because I was hurting so bad."

When Kimberly found out she was pregnant, she didn't know where to turn. She was sent to the Bethlehem House, a charity serving women like her since 2005.

Gina Tomes runs the home. She has a social work background. Gina makes it her mission to get these women ready for the outside world.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Bethlehem_House_Offers_Hope__A_Home_140663533.html

Both her and her new husband have previous runs in with the law. She claims this incident was Diabetic shock.

An interview with her is here:

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Toddler-Left-In-Parked-Car-With-Door-Open-Intoxicated-Couple-Cited-238441271.html

[pipi_k]

45. And cases like this

are exactly why I don't think everyone has the god-given "right" to reproduce.

People always think they're being so "liberal" and "progressive" when they say it's none of their business how many kids someone chooses to have.

Well, some people shouldn't have ANY kids.

Some people can't even be trusted to take care of a goddamned cat, let alone a kid.

And I do believe that alcoholism is a disease that people can't help. I mean, nobody actually chooses to BE an alcoholic. But they don't have the right to fuck up the lives of other people...especially not kids.

[jeff47]

46. Biology really doesn't care what you want.

As a result, there's going to be a lot of parents who "shouldn't have ANY kids".

[pipi_k]

47. Yeah, I realize that...

which is why I wouldn't cry if there were laws about who could or could not have children and what might need to be done to prevent unsuitable people from fucking up innocent little kids.

Back when I was of childbearing age, I doubt I would have passed muster myself. My kids have largely forgiven me for any emotional damage I did to them because I was so young and stupid.

I also realize that this attitude is not in line with "liberal" thinking, but, well...too bad.


So yeah...biology doesn't give a rat's ass what I think, which is why sometimes it takes others with more sense to keep stupid humans from victimizing innocent others.

[Omaha Steve]

48. This not the first time this year in Omaha....

That a toddler all alone or with an unresponsive adult nearby has been found in the Omaha area.