A Georgia mother is accused of leaving her young child in a car in the freezing cold while she was in a convenience store playing slot machines. Cops say it was the second time they picked her up for doing it.
Michaela Dawn Rayls, 32, was arrested on Christmas Day in front of a Food Mart on Highway 48, according to the Georgia Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office.
A store employee told police that Rayls left her child in the car for more than an hour with the temperatures outside being about 30 degrees, as she and her friend played at the slot machines. She did not leave the store to check on the child during her time in the store.
When police brought Rayls into custody, she gave authorities a fake name. She is accused of acting recklessly by endangering the child’s safety and providing an officer with a fictitious identity. Rayls’ lies indicate that she was attempting to avoid accountability for her actions.
Rayls had been detained previously for the same type of behavior when she left her small child in a car by himself while gambling at a Chattooga County gas station on February 23, 2022.
There are no casinos in Georgia, and people play slots in convenience stores, gas stations and other allowed businesses. Winnings can be traded in for merchandise or lottery tickets, not cash.
In a similar incident of child neglect, a woman from Bridgeport, Connecticut named Tiffany Covington was accused of leaving her two children in a hot car while getting her nails done in June 2022. The children were found unconscious in the car.
Covington allegedly punched one of the cops who attempted to arrest her, which caused the officer’s body camera to fall to the ground and she bit the cop’s hands as he attempted to handcuff her.
Tiffany Covington was accused of resisting arrest on one count, assaulting a police officer on one count, and posing a danger of injury to a child on two counts.
Covington had been free on a bail of $75,000 for a previous arrest. The judge restricted her bail release.
Lucky for the kids and Covington, they did not die in the car.
The nonprofit child safety organization, Kids and Car Safety, reported over 1,000 children have tragically died in hot cars in the US since 1990.