PD: Mom went tanning, left son alone in car

WESTPORT, Conn. (WTNH) --  A Westport mother is accused of leaving her child alone in the car while she went inside to tan.

Westport police say the woman left her 4-year-old son in a car in the freezing cold while she went tanning.

"He was wearing, I believe, a short sleeved shirt and he didn't have a jacket or anything else like that," said Capt. Samuel Arciola, Westport Police Department.

It happened on Saturday. An employee at the tanning salon tells News 8 the mother, 34-year-old Kristen Becker, was planning to be inside tanning for 20 minutes, while her son sat alone in the cold car.

"She went in to tan? Wow, that's bad, that's really bad," said Susan Walden, of Southport. "That's irresponsible and selfish and dangerous."

"It's very dangerous," said Capt. Arciola. "I think in this particular case she really put the child at risk."

Not only, he says, was the 4-year-old at risk for hypothermia, but he got out of the car and wandered across a parking lot to find his mom.

"The child was there wandering in the parking lot, he could have wandered into the street, walking in between cars," said Capt. Arciola.

A tanning salon employee called police who arrested and charged Becker with risk of injury to a child.

The Department of Children and Families is investigating. 

News 8 tried to find the mother, but she was not home. Police say she won't admit to what she did.

"The mother denies the act of even occurring," said Capt. Arciola.

"But there were witnesses," asked News 8's Ali Reed.

"Yes there were, the people who called us," Capt. Arciola said.

Becker will appear in Norwalk Superior Court on February 11th.