A Texas mother who called police to report her daughter missing has been charged with endangering the child after authorities say she left the 7-year-old "hiding" in a trash bin.
It all began Sunday morning when police received a call from 28-year-old Alicia Carroll, who claimed she had left her daughter with a caretaker who was refusing to return her, NBC 5 reports.
According to the news site, Carroll told police that she left her daughter with a friend while she walked outside the King Spa and Sauna on Royal Lane in Dallas Saturday night to clear her head. According to the news station, a "spa employee told NBC 5 that Carroll was drunk when she, along with her daughter, left a party at the spa" that evening.
After receiving the call from Carroll, police began a full search for the missing girl. Two passersby told police that they saw a 7-year-old girl wearing a yellow shirt and shorts. Police found the girl not far from the spa. They described her as being "hungry and thirsty, filthy, wearing no shoes and suffering from several cuts and scrapes to her arms and legs," according to the news station.
The girl told police that she and her mother had been walking down the street after leaving the spa Saturday night when her mother began running. The girl said her mother told her that they were being followed by police, and then helped the girl into a trash can so that she could "hide," according to NBC 5.
The girl told police that she fell asleep inside the trash can, which police noted was in a "high-crime area … by a creek and wooded area." She woke up some 10 hours later and began walking toward the spa, the news station notes.
Police arrested Carroll Sunday, and according to NBC 5, she admitted to downing two vodkas Saturday night but said she couldn't remember anything else until the next morning, when she realized that her daughter was missing and called police. She is being held on $25,000 bond.
Carroll's daughter was taken to a hospital and released to a family member, NBC 5 reports.
Read more at NBC 5.