Crack-Smoking Mom Robs Restaurant
Posted: 5:55 am EDT June 19, 2009Updated: 7:20 pm EDT June 19, 2009
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A three-year-old girl was taken along for the ride during her mother's crime spree in Brevard County.Cocoa police say it all started in the early hours of Friday morning when 34-year-old Miranda Marie Peters-Ortiz, with her daughter in the backseat, decided to rob the Wendy's on US-1 in Cocoa.
AT THE SCENE: Mother Robs Wendy's With Daughter In Car
Police say Peters-Ortiz was armed with a gun and got away with $600 cash.When the cops showed up, Peters-Ortiz jumped in her car and took off. Police chased her at high speed for nearly 10 minutes and finally used stop sticks on her vehicle. One police car even blew its own tire on the stop sticks.With assistance from Brevard County sheriff's deputies, Rockledge and Palm Bay police, the woman was finally stopped.Peters-Ortiz refused to get out of the vehicle and officers forcibly removed her while she was smoking crack-cocaine. Her child was in the back seat of the car at the time of the extraction and was not harmed."She was refusing to come out of the car. They had to take her out of the vehicle by smashing the window," said Bobby Jones of the Cocoa Police Department.The little girl and her mother were brought here to Wuestoff Hospital to be checked out. The little girl is alright and she is now with her father.Eyewitness News was there when the mother was placed in handcuffs, put onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital. Crews also brought the little girl the hospital.The weapon used in the robbery has not yet been found, but police are continuing to search for the gun.Ortiz is in the Brevard County jail facing several charges including fleeing and eluding, aggravated child abuse, possession of cocaine and armed robbery.
AT THE SCENE: Mother Robs Wendy's With Daughter In Car
Police say Peters-Ortiz was armed with a gun and got away with $600 cash.When the cops showed up, Peters-Ortiz jumped in her car and took off. Police chased her at high speed for nearly 10 minutes and finally used stop sticks on her vehicle. One police car even blew its own tire on the stop sticks.With assistance from Brevard County sheriff's deputies, Rockledge and Palm Bay police, the woman was finally stopped.Peters-Ortiz refused to get out of the vehicle and officers forcibly removed her while she was smoking crack-cocaine. Her child was in the back seat of the car at the time of the extraction and was not harmed."She was refusing to come out of the car. They had to take her out of the vehicle by smashing the window," said Bobby Jones of the Cocoa Police Department.The little girl and her mother were brought here to Wuestoff Hospital to be checked out. The little girl is alright and she is now with her father.Eyewitness News was there when the mother was placed in handcuffs, put onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital. Crews also brought the little girl the hospital.The weapon used in the robbery has not yet been found, but police are continuing to search for the gun.Ortiz is in the Brevard County jail facing several charges including fleeing and eluding, aggravated child abuse, possession of cocaine and armed robbery.
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