A neighbor told Orlando police on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. that a little boy, 4, ran up to her, naked and asking for his mother, police said.
The incident happened at the intersection of Glynde Hill Drive and Bardmoor Hill Circle in Orlando.
The boy walked the neighbor to his house, where she saw the front door open, but she did not go in, police said. The neighbor took the child back to her driveway, put him in a diaper and gave him food.
When police arrived at the boy’s home, they found the door wide open and a dog running in and out of the home, police said. Officers said they could smell marijuana coming from the home.
They went inside the home after no one answered and found the boy’s mother, Bianca Bethea, 26, sleeping, police said. Officers also said they noticed 0.7 grams of marijuana on Bethea’s dresser.
“I would be a liar to sit here and deny to you guys and say, ‘I didn’t smoke.’ I did smoke, but I was outside of my house, I wasn’t inside my house. I wasn’t beside my son smoking, I was outside,” Bethea said.
Officers woke Bethea up, and they found trash, clothes and dog feces all over the house, along with broken glass on the kitchen floor, police said.
“I’m not an unfit mother, that’s not what I am,” Bethea told Channel 9’s Cuthbert Langley. She said she fell asleep with the boy while watching the Olympics, and he unlocked the door and walked out.
“I’m very grateful that (the neighbor) found my son, that she fed him and she gave him a diaper to put on and made sure he was taken care of. I’m appreciative,” Bethea said.
Police were at the home in May after the toddler was found walking alone, police said. No report was ever filed.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Bethea has been charged with one count of child neglect.
Cox Media Group
