A Grovetown mother left her 22-month-old son in a locked closet for hours while delivering DoorDash, authorities say.
Authorities used a ladder to get inside the woman’s apartment on Saturday night to rescue the child, who was found sleeping in the closet, wrapped in a blanket, and surrounded by trash and other small items that he could have choked on, a report says.
Officers also found a nasty, feces-covered residence with a roaming Pit Bull, five cats, a bird locked in a second closet and a tarantula in a plastic container on the kitchen counter.
The rescue happened at 10 p.m. Saturday in an apartment on Gristmill Court after a tip from the child’s grandmother. The tipster said she had reason to believe 24-year-old Shania Sebastian often left her child while she ran orders for DoorDash, a food delivery service that hires independent drivers to pick up and deliver food and other items from restaurants, nearby grocery and convenience stores.
The grandmother said she was informed of the child cruelty by her son, who is the child’s father. Sebastian did not arrive back at the apartment until almost 4 a.m. Sunday and had little concern for her son, according to a sheriff’s report.
“Shania stated she had been out delivering DoorDash orders,” the report says. “Shania stated she left (her son) unattended in the apartment because it was not good for his spine to be in a car seat. Shania showed no remorse for her actions and was only concerned about what happened to her animals. Shania never asked about (her son) or his condition.”
The child was taken by social workers and placed into the custody of his grandmother. The victim had several bruises on his body with what appeared to be fecal matter in one of his ears. He was checked by first responders.
The inside of the apartment was in deplorable condition, authorities said. The floors were covered in trash, animal feces, and dirty diapers. The apartment also had an extremely strong odor of fecal matter and urine.
Five cats were found locked in a bedroom, with no water, fly infested, and cat feces covering the floor. A bird was found locked in a closet with bird feces covering the walls and floor. A pit bull was found roaming freely throughout the apartment, with dog feces on the floor all over the apartment.
Sebastian was charged with cruelty to children in the first degree and cruelty to animals. She remained in jail Tuesday morning on a $26,200 bond.
According to their Facebook accounts, the woman’s husband, Miles Lucas, is in the Army and the couple are originally from Washington State.
