Michaela Dawn Rayls, 32, was arrested on Christmas Day, accused of leaving her young child in a car in the freezing cold while she played slot machines. Officers from the Georgia Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office say it was the second time they caught her doing it.
A store employee alerted officers that Rayls left her child in the car for more than an hour while the temperature outside was about 30 degrees, as she and her friend gambled at the slot machines in a Georgia store. She did not leave the store to check on the child.
When Rayls was brought into custody, she lied about her identity. She is accused of acting recklessly by endangering the child’s safety and providing an officer with a fake name.
Rayls had been arrested previously for the same behavior when she left her boy in a car by himself as she gambled at a Chattooga County gas station on February 23, 2022.
There are no casinos in Georgia, and people play slots in convenience stores and other allowed businesses. Winnings can be traded in for merchandise or lottery tickets, not cash.
Arrests due to child neglect and abuse are nothing new.
In a similar incident, a woman from Bridgeport, Connecticut named Tiffany Covington was accused of leaving her two kids in a hot car while getting her nails done in June 2022. The children were found unconscious in the car.
Covington allegedly punched one of the cops who attempted to arrest her, causing the officer’s body camera to fall to the ground when she bit the cop’s hands as he attempted to handcuff her.
Tiffany Covington was accused of resisting arrest on one count, assaulting a police officer on one count, and posing a danger of injury to a child on two counts.
Covington had been free on a bail of $75,000 for a previous arrest. The judge restricted her bail release.
Lucky for the kids and Covington, they did not die in the hot car.
The nonprofit child safety organization, Kids and Car Safety, reported that an average of 38 children die due to being left in cars every year in the US. Over 1,000 children have died from heatstroke in hot cars since 1990.
