MASON CITY – Police were searching for a woman who allegedly beat another woman for approaching her with concerns about children in a car until the woman turned herself in to police Thursday afternoon.
According to police, at about 2 PM Wednesday, officers responded to a reported assault at the Plaza West parking lot on 4th SW near the Tobacco Outlet store.
A Britt woman – who wished to remain unnamed – had reported to police that she had concerns about children alone in a car.
“I came out from a store to my vehicle with my son and noticed in the car next to me was a little boy approx 2-3 yrs old by himself,” the woman told NIT Thursday. “The window was down on the passenger side. I asked him if he was ok and he said yes, I asked him if he was hot and he said yes.”
The woman said that she then waited near the car to see if a parent or guardian was coming soon to attend to the child.
She elaborated on what transpired next:
“I asked him where his mommy was. He said in the store. I waited about 4 minutes or so for her to come out of the Tobacco Outlet and asked if it was her car. She replied that it was and I told her she should never leave a child unattended in a vehicle. She replied that she couldn’t take him into the store because you have to be 18. Again I said you shouldn’t leave a child unattended, it’s hot and there are crazy people that could take your child. She came from the drivers side of her car to where I was standing next to my drivers door parked next to her and started screaming at me that she loves her child and for me to shut the F*** up, all the while punching me in my neck and back.”
The woman then fled the scene, driving a 1990 model red Grand Prix or Grand Am. It did not have license plates at the time of the incident.
“The MCPD were very helpful and compassionate to me. I had surgery on my neck 3 weeks ago and had just come from my post operation appointment,” the victim said. “She was punching my back but I don’t have bruises that I know of, I’m just sore.”
Please call Mason City Police at 641-421-3636 if witnessed this incident or have other information that could be useful to police.
The obvious place to look for this woman would have been any trailer park.
Well it has been said that it takes a Village to raise a child. Since when has it become tabu to come to the aid of a child left alone, for whatever reason. If it were a dog left in a car alone, in the heat, even with a window open, animal control would be called. That happened to me. I went in to the beauty shop to pick up some hairspray, my dog was in the car, windows cracked, I could see him thru the window, in there approximately 5 minutes…. Next thing you know, Pat Gansen, the Animal control officer was out at my car checking on my dog. I immediately went out. She said she had a complaint. She asked me questions about how long I was in there, did he have water, could she see if he is ok etc.. She confirmed that all was well and went on her way. But, now we cannot check on children… Really….that is a sad commentary on society. It is always ok to check on anyone that looks like they may need assistance. It is always better to be safe than sorry!!!!
It’s OK to ask and check, but not to play super parent after you learn the child is OK. Dogs are different than humans. They cannot sweat and minutes is all it takes to fry their skulls. We are not making a value judgment when we do this. It is because we know the canine is different than us.
When Christian Studebaker, an OR Home Depot employee, noticed customers making a commotion about a baby who had been left alone for 20 min. in a hot car parked in the store’s lot, he jumped into action. He broke into the car and carried the 10-month-old, who was sweating and spitting up, into the store to cool off. While he was holding the baby, the child’s father approached him and said, “That’s my kid.” Studebaker replied, “Well, you left him in the car and the police are on the way, so you should probably stick around.” The father was charged with second-degree child neglect. http://bit.ly/18vfnTZ
…And baby’s are the same as dogs in this regard.
However THIS case has nothing to do with that. It was cool and the window was down and the lady was making a short stop. This should all be common sense.
@Steal Panther-God, I hate agreeing with you, but on this issue I do. Being somewhat older than you, I can remember growing up without any air conditioning and we were left in the car, in hot bedrooms and everywhere else without any problems.
just because people did it back in the day doesn’t make it right. It’s because of all the tragedies that these laws were put in place to protect children who can’t protect themselves.
forget the matter of weather. Hot or not hot, that doesn’t stop some psycho from coming and taking that child and doing God knows what with them.
If you think some woman wanting to be every child’s mother is bad, you haven’t been reading this site. Because there are all kinds of people here who want to be MY DOCTOR for crying loud!
I don’t understand why so many people are driving around town with no license plates or just one. The police officers drive around all day — don’t they see them? Why don’t they pick them up?
Who is this bimbo?
The article says she was parked next to the car not blocking it. Question for those of you who state that the bystander was nosy…. How was she to know how long the child was going to be in the car? How was she to know when mom was coming back? Would you all be saying something different if something tragic had happened to the child? If she had just left and something happened to that child wouldn’t you be asking what kind of person sees a child alone in a car and just walks away?!? The mom should face charges because as a society we have laws about physically attacking someone. The mom was probably embarrassed that she looked bad and reacted negatively. She should have thanked the lady for caring.
You guys miss a point. You’re a mother that just came out to see a total stranger talking to your child and with their car blocking yours in. You don’t know this person have no idea her intentions other then she has you cornered and is now confronting you. You don’t know how far this person will take it, if maybe you and your child are in danger. You walked into a store that does not allow children with the vehicle parked by the window so you could watch it. The temp was a non issue that day I worked outside in it for 12 hours. The busy body should not have confronted her if she wanted to call the authorities fine but she was just as wrong as the mother actually in my opinion she was worse. The mother defended herself and her child from an aggressive stranger.
A. nobody was talking to her child when she came out and B. she was standing behind her car, not blocking it with another car.
I think you missed the point. There was a child, alone, in a car. Unacceptable. If she needed her cigs so bad, go to a store that allows people under the age of 18 (pretty sure there are plenty in MC)and take your child in with you.
I would like to know her side of what happened.
she blocked the person in and called the police lucky all she got was a little mind your own business. If you had done that when I was a kid the police would have locked you up not the mother. That tobacco outlet allows no one under 18 in the store.
I don’t care what ‘kind’ of parent this girl claims to be- its evident she has her priorities mixed up!! In hindsight, wonder what them tubes or contents within tubes being used for.. I’d say she pretty much planted idea she ought have to submit to a drug screen…
I wonder if Mommy Dearest smoked those stogies in the car on the way home with the toddler on board. After all she needed her fix bad enough to leave a 3 year old unattended. Book her Dano!
She did’t NEED them as you are all saying. She was stopping to buy tobacco and some tubes. You can’t go to any store to buy that. They are so expensive these days some people make their own.
people get off the kick of her getting smokes or not as i last remember its still legal to go to a tobacco store I think its wrong for them not to allow kids in there they do have chips milk food products so if they say the federal goverment or the the state says no one under 18 than every grocery store,retail store, gas station is breaking the law. and milk and eggs they always have a great sale. whats wrong with the parent actually hanging on to the kids hand while you run in or i guess tabacco outlit needs drive up but that becomes impersonal.!!! the one ratting and raving with just coming from surgery and whatever should of called police or waited til she came out and maybe stayed hepled her out a little but just in kinder words of please try to go where the kid s can go or please you know how tragdey can strike i m glad i could do a citizen deed of helping .
A toddler left alone in an automobile? When I had toddlers in the house, nothing was safe. Even if the house was childproofed. They figured out the latches, knife covers, you name it. We finally went with deadbolts for the cabinets and desk, hanging the skeleton key six feet high.
You cannot blame the kids at that age, it’s all still about imitating dad and mom. Thus given the inquisitive nature of toddlers, you do not leave them alone where they can do harm to themselves or others, like a car.
Kids that age are also defenseless. Thus, having an adult do the right thing, and become concerned for their well being is a virtue in a community.
Now, if you want a community where no one cares, where anyone can get away with what ever they like, where bad acts go unreported, good luck. That community in the long run will fail.
When one examines the changes in the last 60 years in our society, there is no doubt in my mind that lack of community is the reasoning for it’s decline.
I’m not concerned about someone taking the kid because that is a very rare occurrence in Iowa. However, at that age, my kids could fasten and unfasten a seat belt. I could see the kid getting into the divers seat, playing driver and possibly pulling the car out of gear. Kids are naturally curious. That parking lot is sloped toward Highway 122 and Taft Ave and the car could have rolled into another car or across the parking lot and into the ditch or street. Even if mom was watching from the store, she might not have been able to catch the car. She’s damned lucky her kid was well behaved enough to stay in his seat. It was a stupid move. Someone needed to tell her so and I hope she exhibits better parenting skills in the future. If she’s ignoring the kid now, what will happen when the kid is a teenager? (other than the same people who are pissing all over NIT because someone interfered will be pissing all over NIT because the kid is a hellion with no parental supervision.) There are kids who die in this state every year because of neglect and violence perpetrated or facilitated by their parents. In almost every case someone says “If I had spoken up…” or “I guess that was a warning sign…” Someone spoke up here. Perhaps it wasn’t necessary but the person speaking up didn’t know that. We don’t know that. Perhaps she did it in the wrong manner. (and being post-surgery getting physically into the situation was probably a bonehead move) She might have saved this kids life because maybe mom will think differently in the future. Kids don’t come with an instruction manual and parents don’t have to get a license to have one. You learn by experience and keep your fingers crossed you get it right. Hopefully both of these women learned from this situation. (don’t leave your kid in the car and if you’re going to yell at someone for leaving their kid in the car, don’t get within arms reach of them.)
Yes!
‘A rare occurrence in Iowa’? Where in the hell have you been? There’s been reports all over this area of suspected predators.
This lady did the right thing, kudos to her!
Suspected predators are just that, suspects. Stranger child abduction is rare.
Props go to the lady that did something. When my kids were small. If my kids were with me and couldn’t go in a store. Then I didn’t. To leave a child in a car is sooo wrong! The window down. Lucky someone just didn’t take the child! Then we would be up in arms. If the mom thought she did right why didn’t she wait for the Police?? We know why don’t we. It only takes a minute for a sick person to make a bad choice!!!
AMEN!!!!!
SteelPanther has it right.
Your business starts at the end of my nose.
You folks that are trying to judge this lady harshly best not throw stones. You live in a glass house also.
She obviously got pissed (and rightly so) because the lady stuck her nose in where it didn’t belong and got it cut off. When the kid told her he/she was ok she should butted out.
Some people love to borrow trouble from tomorrow!
I hope there are no charges filed and write it off as learning experience for both parties. There really is no harm done here unless the nosy lady is looking to sue and make some money.
No one has the right to lay hands on another. How many people are even concerned that this child had been alone for some time before the second woman came out and spent several minutes talking to this child? Where is the concern for the child? Where is your sense of right and wrong? Yes I would have called the police first then if they had not arrived to assist this child and mom came out swinging because her wrong had been pointed out to her I would have dropped her to protect myself.
The window was down and the weather was cool. She just ran in to grab something and was coming right back. She could see the car from the store. What do you think. It’s not like she left the kid locked in a closed vehicle for two hours. What a mamby, pamby society we live in today.
Matt: Thank you!
This is a tremendous public service you provide. Citizens have an opportunity to play a positive role in law enforcement, making our community safer and functioning as an online neighborhood watch. No other media provides this ongoing resource, its become your special nitch.
Now I know why NIT is losing its appeal to me. The same folks who say “mind your own business” to the woman who was concerned about the CHILD’s safety, calling her a busybody and nosy, are pretty much the same ones who stick their noses into everybody’s else’s business.
well said bodacious
Typical whiney ass, cry baby crap from a libraterd. That figures.
Thanks for proving my point.
Bye, Bye bodacious.
Don’t let the door hit ya too hard !
Right on bodacious. Just watch them judge and become holier than thou the next time they see Bookmeyer coming out of Hy Vee with a suspicious looking grocery sack. He won’t sure as hell won’t be innocent until proven guilty. Someone else mind their own business, but not me.
If you trap someone to prevent them from leaving it can be considered as kidnapping!
Steel,
Wake up. The “Leave it To Beaver” days are long gone…even in Smalltown, USA. Unfortunately, there is trash out there that would love nothing more than take a young child from a car with no supervision and abuse that child. Is that REALLY worth the risk to go in and get smokes?? More power to the woman who asked the child if he was OK. You’d be singing a different tune if you saw on the news that night that a child or two was abducted from a vehicle in a lot where mom was inside a store. Put down the weed and smell the roses.
Oh yes FEAR. Live in fear my children El Quida is everywhere…the spooks are gonna get ya!
Post 9/11……be afraid. Stock up and duct tape and plastic sheeting.
Approximately 2,000 kids per day in America are abducted…… that is 1 every 40 seconds. I would say that is something I would think about before leaving my 2 year old in a car in a parking lot without supervision.
The person that was apparently assaulted is one of the people who run the Facebook page Mason City Police Scanner because she was on there saying she was assaulted. First and for most you never leave a child in a car by themselfs period. Now with that said may be she should have just called the police and no confronted the mother in the first place and she also admitted that she blocked her in her parking space with her car so the mother could not get away. If you just had neck surgery maybe you should think and not confront people. This is Mason City and she should be happy all she got was smacked around some. Moral of my story just call the police and let them take care of it that is what they get paid for and quit being such a nosey busy body. I know people may not agree with me that s fine but if you go and read the whole post of hers on Facebook all of her story just doesn’t add up.
if the door was locked and she was running in to grab somthing i dont see the problem. the lady should have minded her business. she messed with the wrong woman and paid for it.
Some people have to be Joe Parent. Oh my god you left your 3 year old in a car for five minutes!
Word to Joe Parent. I think you are confusing black labs and our concerns regarding the canines inability to sweat and human children.
Mind your own business in cases like this. If it was a black lab and it was hot and window wasn’t down or down very far…then help out. I can’t believe I even have to tell you this. The world I grew up in was smarter.
She is a real piece of work.
If you can not take your kids into the store and you can not find someone to watch your kids for a few minutes while you are in there then maybe you should get some better priorities and quit smoking so you do not leave your kid in the car unattended! This women chose her nasty habit over her child’s well being. I feel sorry for that kid!
agree
I wonder if she smokes? Or just chews
One’s nosy, the other trash!
Whats so nosy about caring about the well being of someone elses child?
I love this person for standing up for this child. I’m a mother and you can’t teach compassion when someones not born with it!
FROM MCPD:
The suspect has been identified in the Plaza West parking lot incident from yesterday. Police are interested in speaking to any witnesses who may have witnessed the confrontation and alleged assault.
um, its the clients/patrons that cant be under 18… not their children.
Tobacco Outlet is no one under 18 in the store for any reason.
If nobody under 18 are allowed in the store, and rightfully so, she should not have gone there in the first place. Parent of the year award to that mom. :/
No mom is perfect. She probably learned her lesson and that lady should have backed off and let the police deal with it. Live and Learn. After this I bet she won’t do it again. It was only 4 minutes in and out. It’s not like she left the child alone for 2 hours and went to a bar.