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Authorities have arrested a Florida mother accused of abandoning her child in a running car to go swimming with sharks, according to WBBH. The Lee County Sheriff's Office got a 911 call around 10:30 a.m. Monday (September 11) from Capt'n Cons Fish House in Bokeelia.
The witness told deputies that 41-year-old Allison Sarah Daugherty parked her car at a local pier before jumping into the water, leaving her son alone in the vehicle with the air conditioning on for roughly 20 minutes. The boy's age wasn't revealed, but witnesses claim he was still in diapers.
Reporters said bystanders were yelling at the woman to get out of the water due to fishing hooks and sharks. The mother yelled back that she "didn't care," claiming she "wanted to get hooked" and "meet sharks." Officials allege Daugherty swam further away from the coast when deputies arrived, and a local marine unit had to bring her back to shore.
A staff member at Capt'n Cons told reporters Daugherty showed up at the restaurant three times with her kid before Monday's incident.
“We called the sheriff’s office; she didn’t seem drunk. She didn’t seem intoxicated,” Jenny Wray told WBBH. “Something was just off.”
Daugherty was booked into Lee County Jail and charged with child neglect.