HOUSTON — A Texas mother is accused of abandoning her 8-year-old daughter in a parking lot, news outlets reported.
As first published by ABC 13, the suspect - Zaida Gonzalez - is currently being charged with abandoning and endangering a child.
Around 4:15 a.m. Monday, officers were dispatched to the 11500 block of Grapewood on reports of a missing juvenile, according to the Harris County Constable Precinct 2's Office.
Police said that after hours of searching, they received a call around 8 a.m. from the child's father that she had been located.
Upon interviewing the child and her father, the 8-year-old told officials that her mother was allegedly drunk driving and behaving erratically.
Police said that after telling her mother to slow down at one point, she was told to get out.
Afterward, the girl said walked .6 miles by herself in the dark to a nearby local gas station for help, ABC 13 reports.
Police said the attending clerk contacted them, as well as a member of the girl's family that later picked her up.
Officials said surveillance footage from a nearby business has since confirmed the story.
The girl's mother was later taken into custody around 11:00 a.m. without incident, ABC 13 reports.
She has since been released on a $10,000 bond.
ABC 13 is also reporting this is not the mother's first incident as she was arrested in 2007 for endangering a child.
