Police: Mother Left 4-Year-Old in Car While Shopping

A Bayville woman was arrested Sunday after she left her 4-year-old son unattended in a car while she went shopping in Huntington Village, police said. 

Police said Second Precinct officer Peter O’Brien responded to a 3:08 p.m. call in which a witness reported a young child left unattended in a vehicle that was parked in the Wild by Nature parking lot located at 369 West Main Street. 

When he arrived on the scene, O’Brien saw the child in the backseat of a gray Toyota Yaris that was locked and not running, police said. 

Witnesses said the child, who was in the car with a dog, had been in the vehicle about 20 minutes before police arrived.  The outside temperature was approximately 37 degrees at the time of the incident, police said. 

When the children’s mother, Marcela Monaco, 39, returned to the vehicle, she was arrested and charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child. 

Monaco will be held overnight at the Fourth Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Monday. 

The Suffolk County Department of Social Services Child Protective Services Bureau will be notified of the incident, police said.