A Florida woman was busted for hiding her infant in the trunk of her car to avoid a ticket for not having a car seat, police said according to The Smoking Gun.
Synclair Watkins' 5-month-old baby was found in the trunk of a Dodge Stratus surrounded by a fuel pump and other hazardous objects when Broward police stopped her for a broken headlight Tuesday morning.
It was later determined that Watkins, of Lauderdale Lakes, had another passenger stash the infant in the trunk to avoid being ticketed. The 19-year-old mother was arrested for felony child cruelty among other charges.
Watkins was driving with her baby and a 14-year-old boy, whose mother owns the vehicle, at around 1 a.m. when police signaled her to pull over. But Watkins ignored the signal and continued driving for several blocks, according to a sheriff's report obtained by The Smoking Gun.
When she finally pulled over, Watkins told police she kept driving because "she has never been pulled over before," reads the report. She also gave police a fake name and later confessed to lying because she was driving without a license.
But the charade didn't stop there. After police placed Watkins in a patrol car, a second officer "heard crying from the vehicle and there was no child in the vehicle," police wrote.
Police opened the trunk and discovered a baby inside left on top a pair of cutting shears, according to the report. The infant was also surrounded by a tire iron, plastic bags and a rusty hanger.
Watkins later admitted she told the 14-year-old to hide her baby in the trunk "through the rear seat opening which folds down" before she was pulled over.
She "did not want to get a ticket for having her child not in a car seat," police wrote.
In addition to child cruelty, Watkins was charged with driving without a license and resisting an officer, according to The Smoking Gun. She remains held at the county jail on $7,000 bond.
