A mom in Georgia is facing possible jail time after her 10-year-old son was found walking alone to town, less than a mile from the family’s home.
Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested on suspicion of reckless conduct on Oct. 30 over her son’s unsupervised walk, according to the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office.
Patterson had taken another son to a doctor’s appointment when she left her son Soren, now 11, alone at their home in the rural town of Mineral Bluff, NBC News reported. After someone reported Soren’s wandering, deputies located him and drove him home.
“It’s not a super dangerous or even dangerous-at-all stretch of road,” Patterson told the outlet. “I wasn’t terrified for him or scared for his safety.”
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Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested after her son was found walking alone less than one mile from home in their rural town of Mineral Bluff, Georgia. (Fannin County Sheriffs Office)
Still, deputies returned to the home later and placed Patterson under arrest.
In bodycam footage obtained by ABC News, deputies could be heard telling Patterson she is under arrest for reckless endangerment.
Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested after it was reported to deputies that her son, who was 10 at the time, was walking alone less than a mile from the family’s home. (Fannin County Sheriffs Office)
“And how was I recklessly endangering my child?” Patterson asked.
Another deputy responded, “We’re not talking about it,” before handcuffing the mom.
Patterson and her lawyer said that authorities offered to drop the charge if she signed a safety plan that included using a GPS tracker on her son’s phone.
The mom said she is refusing to sign the plan and will fight the charge.
“I just felt like I couldn’t sign that and that in doing so, would be agreeing that there was something unsafe about my home or something unsafe about my parental decisions and I just don’t believe that,” the mom told ABC News.
Patterson was released on $500 bail and could face up to a year in jail under the charge.