Video: 2 adults found passed out in car with baby in backseat in Florida
DELAND, Fla. (WFLA) – In an effort to show how serious the opioid epidemic is, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has posted a video to Facebook showing two adults passed out in a car with a baby in the backseat.
Deputy Lewis with the sheriff’s office found a car in a Circle K parking lot with its driver door open around 3:15 Tuesday morning. The deputy said the windows were fogged up, indicating the car had been sitting there for a while.
Inside the car, a man in the driver’s seat and a woman in the passenger’s seat were unconscious.
The deputy also found a baby who was about 8 months old in the backseat, sleeping and sweating profusely. When the deputy woke the adults up to talk to them, the baby started crying.
Deputy Lewis said it was clear the baby hadn’t had her diaper changed in some time because the diaper was saturated with fluids and was leaking from the edges of the diaper around the baby’s legs. The car seat was also saturated with fluids that had leaked from the baby’s diaper.
The deputy said the baby looked dirty and it appeared she hadn’t been bathed in a while. She also appeared hungry, according to Deputy Lewis, and started crying and reaching for an empty bottle when she saw it.
According to the sheriff’s office, the woman in the passenger seat was so impaired she had difficulty spelling her name and couldn’t figure out where she was. Deputy Lewis found a clear plastic bag with white residue in the woman’s pocket that tested positive for the presence of opiates. The woman was arrested for child neglect and possession of opiates.
The man in the driver’s seat was arrested for driving with a suspended license because the key was in the ignition and he had control of the car. He was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after Deputy Lewis found a syringe in his pocket that tested positive for the presence of opiates. The deputy also noticed track marks on the man’s inner arms.
Both adults were taken to the Volusia County Jail.
The baby is now in the care of the Department of Children and Families.
In the Facebook post, the sheriff’s office wrote: “The opioid epidemic touches innocent lives every day.”