A Hartford, Conn., mother was arrested Tuesday after she reportedly left her 4-year-old daughter home alone while she was out performing sexual favors for money.
Police have charged Shi'day Nicks, 22, with "risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and leaving a child under 12 unsupervised," the Hartford Courant reports.
According to police documents viewed by WFSB, Nicks admits to leaving her daughter, Shafyalya Nicks, 4, unattended in their apartment sleeping. She told police she prepared lunch and left out Shafyalya's favorite snacks before leaving the home to perform sexual favors in exchange for money, the documents indicate. Police were called to the apartment when Shafyalya was found wandering the street alone.
According to the documents, Nicks said she was to be paid $230 in exchange for sexual services, but that after spending some three hours with a man, she wasn't paid and was driven home.
When she arrived, neighbors informed her that police had taken her daughter into custody.
Nicks told police that she was on the verge of being evicted and made the decision to leave the child alone so that she could make money. Nicks, according to police, takes full responsibility for the incident.
"I don't understand what happened," Anthony Nicks, Nicks' father and the child's grandfather, told the news station. "I haven't talked to her and she hasn't called my phone."
Shafyalya is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families until the investigation is complete, the Hartford Courant reports.
"As a grandfather and a father, it's very disturbing because I don't know what happened with my granddaughter or with her," Anthony Nicks said.
According to WFSB, Shi'day Nicks is due back in court in a few weeks.
Read more at the Hartford Courant and WFSB.