Mother's shopping trip meant abandoning son for weeks
Police have arrested the mother of a young boy whose neighbours took turns caring for him and waited weeks to call police after she went shopping and did not return.
Juline Bullard, 44, was being held in custody in Arlington, Texas, on a child abandonment charge.
She had left her son with a friend while she went shopping in July and never returned, so the neighbours took over feeding and caring for him – until someone finally called police.
Bullard claimed to police that someone had agreed to care for the child for three months while she sought housing and a job.
The boy, known only as Teddy, told neighbours he is three but may be as old as five, authorities said.
He had charmed his benefactors.
“I knew I should report it. I just didn’t want to turn him in for just anyone to have,” said Belinda Smith, 57, with whom Teddy lived for a month. “He’s such a special child.”
“Many of them were under the impression that the mother would return,” said police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour.
Teddy is now in foster care.
Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said: “It’s unusual for some neighbours to do so much when they don’t even know the family very well.”
