WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A Lakeland woman was arrested after she allegedly left four children, all under the age of 10, in an idling car while she ate, drank and danced inside a Winter Haven lounge.
Polk County Sheriff's deputies said they were called around 9:20 p.m. Monday to the Apple Lounge on Recker Highway by an employee. When deputies arrived, they said they found four kids — a 10-month-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy — inside a car in the parking lot outside of the lounge.
Investigators said they found 36-year-old Tiffany Simmons inside the bar and went to talk to her. However, the sheriff's office said as investigators were talking to Simmons, she "appeared intoxicated, was belligerent, uncooperative and physically defiant." As she was arrested and taken into custody, the sheriff's office said Simmons kicked a deputy.
The sheriff's office said a detective spoke with an employee who explained what happened. The employee reportedly told the detective that Simmons came to the lounge around 8 p.m. with a little boy in tow.
She was told no one under the age of 21 was allowed in the lounge, to which she replied that she would take the boy outside to wait with his father.
After about 15 minutes, Simmons returned to the lounge alone. She reportedly ordered food, drank vodka and danced.
However, at some point, the lounge staff became "suspicious." They reportedly went outside to look at the cars in the parking lot and found the four young children unattended in the idling car. That's when they called the sheriff's office.
During the investigation, detectives said they notified the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), who came and safely reunited the children with "biological family members."
Simmons was arrested and charged with four counts of negligent child abuse, battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of resisting with violence, 2 counts of resisting without violence, and three counts of leaving children unattended in a motor vehicle for more than 15 minutes.
“Tiffany Simmons has a history of bad decisions, and this one is the latest," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. "She left these four beautiful children, alone…in an idling vehicle, parked in a dimly lit parking lot, and outside of a lounge. All the while, she’s inside drinking vodka. The oldest child had a cell phone with no phone service, and he didn’t know how to call 911 in an emergency. Simmons’ actions are infuriating and reprehensible.”
