A Fort Pierce woman was arrested today after the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office says she left her disabled child in her locked car in the middle of the night for more than an hour last week while she played the slot machines.

Evylon Keys Hrusovsky, 54, was arrested on a felony charge of child neglect. Investigators said she left her 5-year-old son, who is mentally and physically disabled, locked in her sport utility vehicle from 11:45 p.m. Wednesday to 12:50 a.m. Thursday.

The car was in the parking lot of a gaming arcade, where people can play slot machines and video poker for prizes, in the 4400 block of U.S. 1 near Fort Pierce.

After an arcade employee reported the neglect, deputies reviewed the security tapes and saw the child jumping on the front seat while Hrusovsky was inside, and then saw her come out after a manager of the arcade told her that patrons had seen the child jumping around in the seat. She then drove off with her son, according to the report.

The manager, Kimberly Haas, told deputies that a customer had come up to her and told her the child was screaming in the car. She then told Hrusovsky, who went outside to see the child and then went back inside to get money she had left in one of the slot machines before leaving, according to the report.

Hrusovsky told investigators today that she went into the arcade to find her sister and that she was collecting cans. She said she played a few games, but that she was only inside for about 20 minutes, according to the report. When told she was on video surveillance for more than an hour, Hrusovsky told investigators she knew she was wrong to leave her child alone in the car.

She was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail today. St. Lucie County sheriff’s officials could not comment on who had custody of the child.

- Jason Schultz

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.