An Augusta mother left her special-needs child in the storage room of a Family Dollar in her bizarre attempt to keep the 4-year-old boy from his father, authorities said.
The mother not only walked the boy down to the store on Laney Walker Boulevard and left him in the storage room on Sept. 19, but she also stacked up boxes and crates around him, according to an arrest warrant.
Allison Bello, 42, of King Street, was charged with child cruelty in the second degree, a felony. She remained in jail on Monday afternoon, after a week, without bond.
When the suspect’s boyfriend called the cops about his missing son Sept. 19, Bello told officers that “she took her son to the Family Dollar down the street because she feared for his well-being.”
Deputy McMurtry entered the storage room and noticed “boxes and crates stacked up around the child as if to keep the child there,” a sheriff’s report says.
Before calling cops, the child’s father confronted his girlfriend about where she had taken the child. He said she became aggressive and tried to attack him. Bello allegedly grabbed a wooden level and tried to strike her boyfriend with it. That’s when he held her down on the ground and told his neighbor who was outside to call the police.
According to a sheriff’s report, the child has special needs, and DFACS has been involved with the family in the past. A social-services agent told deputies they would come and check on the child.
