Mom charged with abandoning kids to shop

APOLLO BEACH -- About 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said, Sarah Bracamonte locked each of her three young children in a separate bedroom in her Sunset Bay condo and went off to shop at Westfield Brandon mall.

It was more than three hours before a neighbor noticed one of the children banging on a window and called sheriff's deputies, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter. A sergeant picked the front door lock, and deputies found the children -- a 3-year-old boy, and 2-year-old boy and girl twins -- locked in isolation from each other, without food and in some cases covered in their own filth, Carter said.

Deputies contacted Bracamonte's parents, who own the condo but live out of state, and they called Bracamonte on her cell phone, Carter said. Bracamonte (left) returned home about 9:30 p.m., Carter said.
Her children were taken into protective custody, and Bracamonte was questioned and charged with three felony counts of child neglect.

She was released on $6,000 bail at 4 a.m. today.

Carter said the three children will either go to stay with relatives or live in foster care while the charges against their mother are pending.

--S.I. Rosenbaum, Times Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.