HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — According to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), a 4-year-old girl was found wandering alone in a hotel lobby for about 25 minutes Sunday morning after her mother left her unsupervised to go smoke marijuana in her car.
Deputies responded around 9:15 a.m. on Aug 31 to the Microtel on Commercial Way in Spring Hill. When they arrived, the child was still in the lobby, unaccompanied by an adult.
A few minutes later, deputies say the girl’s mother, 29-year-old Cheyenne Mamagona of Largo, entered the lobby and the child ran toward her. Mamagona told deputies she had stepped outside her hotel room to smoke marijuana in her vehicle and did not realize her daughter had left the room.
HCSO said Mamagona does not have a medical marijuana card. After searching her vehicle, deputies found marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
She was arrested and charged with child neglect, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was booked into the Hernando County Detention Center and initially held without bond on the neglect charge.
The Department of Children and Families took custody of the child at the hotel.
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