Mom’s Trip to Adult Store Ends at Jail

It was a “stupid mistake.”

That’s what Pasco County Sheriff’s deputies say Keala Morgan Crocker, 22, told them after she was arrested outside the Todd Adult Superstore in Port Richey June 21.

Crocker was arrested Saturday night after leaving her children, ages 1 and 3, locked inside a running vehicle outside the 10831 U.S. 19 store, according to an arrest affidavit. Witnesses spotted the children unattended in the car and waited with them for “at least 20 minutes before they called the sheriff’s office,” the report said.

When deputies arrived, they questioned Crocker, who said she was helping a friend shop inside the store. She told deputies she believed the “children would be OK.”

Crocker was charged with child neglect and leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. She was released on bond from the Land O’ Lakes Jail.