MELBOURNE,Fla. -- A topless babysitter found lying in a hotel parking lot faces charges
after Melbourne police said she failed to watch over a 5-year-old boy
whose mother had gone gambling.
Stacey
Kerres, 47, of Fort Pierce, was charged with child neglect after
Melbourne police were called to investigate reports of a child found
alone for nearly an hour late Thursday in the River Palm Hotel, 420 S.
Harbor City Blvd.
Police talked to the child, who was
sitting with the hotel staff playing a video game, told them his mother
had gone to the "casino" and that his mother left him with a woman named
Stacey. The child also indicated the woman was routinely put in charge
of watching him.
Police searched the property and found
Kerres, identified with a dagger and rose ankle tattoo, lying topless in
the middle of the parking lot, not far from the room where the boy was
staying with his mother, reports show.
Kerres, who police
said appeared lethargic and incoherent as she struggled to talk, managed
to tell the patrol officers that the child's mother had gone gambling
that "I don't even know where (the boy) is right now," reports show.
Police
booked Kerres into the Brevard County Jail Complex and searched
unsuccessfully for the mother before turning the case over to the
Department of Children and Families.
Kerres, ordered by a
judge to have no further contact with the child pending the outcome of
the case, will have a Sept. 18 hearing on the charges.
Florida Today