A woman who left her 21-month-old twins alone on the side of a two-lane highway, has been charged with child neglect, Winter Haven police said.
Hilda Rodriguez, 24, was booked into the Polk County Jail on Thursday, without incident.
A detective, traveling in the 3000 block of West Lake Hamilton Drive, around 9:15 a.m., yesterday, spotted the two toddler girls playing in the dirt at the edge of the highway. As the female police stopped her vehicle, one of the children walked out of the roadway toward her.
The detective went to the house that was directly in front of where the children were found, about 100 yards from the roadway, in an attempt to locate where the children lived.
Rodriguez answered the door telling police that the children were hers and she had put them in car seats, in front of the television and gone to sleep.
Rodriguez also said, the incident was “no big deal,” and seemed not to be concerned the kids were alone outside, police also said.
It’s unclear how the girls got to the edge of the two-lane highway in car seats.
The toddlers were looked after by the Winter Haven Police Department for several hours, before ultimately being turned over to the Department of Children and Families.
Rodriguez was booked into the Polk County Jail on child neglect charges.
