Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Woman abandoned 3 children in vehicle
A woman is accused of abandoning three children — ages 8 and younger — at a gas station, a grocery store, and inside a locked car. She told Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s deputies that she drove off with the children in Orlando after she got into an argument with their father.
Miesha Danelle Perkins, 36, was arrested Monday. Her relationship to the children wasn’t made public.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Perkins was driving a 2018 white Chevy Equinox at around 5 a.m. Monday when she abandoned an 8-year-old girl at a Shell gas station in the 6000 block of Okeechobee Boulevard near Drexel Road in unincorporated West Palm Beach. Surveillance video shows the girl and her belongings being removed from the SUV before it drives off, detectives said. At about 9 a.m., Perkins left a 3-year-old boy alone at a Publix in the 300 block of S. Rosemary Avenue in West Palm Beach, according to Sheriff ’s Office investigators. Perkins told the toddler to go inside and get a drink, then she drove off without him. A customer found the boy and called 911.
About 15 minutes later, police tracked down Perkins on Palm Beach island after witnesses called 911. Perkins was stopped by police as she walked away from the SUV, which she had parked on the corner of Sunrise Avenue and North Ocean Boulevard. Locked inside was a 1-yearold infant, authorities said. The SUV had one broken window.
Perkins was taken into custody by West Palm Beach police. During questioning, Perkins told detectives that she was on a road trip with the three children and their father. There was a disagreement between the adults during the drive from Louisiana to Florida, the arrest report stated. When they stopped at a gas station on Florida’s Turnpike near Orlando, Perkins left without him, taking the kids. Once she reached Palm Beach County, she abandoned the children one by one.
The father’s identity has not been disclosed by authorities.
All three kids are in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families, officials said. Perkins is charged with three counts of child neglect. She is in Palm Beach County Jail on $30,000 bonds.