Claremore Police: Woman Arrested After Leaving Kids In Car During Cold Day

Claremore police arrested a mother accused of leaving her three kids in a car for 20 minutes without any heat in a grocery store parking lot.

Sandria Hodges faces a child neglect charge after police said she left three of her kids, all under the age of 10, in a car that wasn’t running while she ran inside of a grocery store.

“Obviously, you hear about children being left in a car, no matter what the temperature is you should never do it. In this case it was pretty cold outside,” said Claremore Police Officer Brian Burnett. “Their bodies are different than adults. Their temperature can drop in a matter of minutes and it can become deadly in a short amount of time."

The report said Hodges told police she “just ran inside of the store to use the restroom.”

Officers checked the grocery store surveillance cameras and said Hodges left her kids in the car twice for a total of 20 minutes.

“The temperature was in the 30s but it felt like 29 degrees,” said Burnett. “They were able to determine that it was roughly 20 minutes that those children were left in a car unattended."

Police were originally called to the store on a call of a man stealing lobster from inside the store. They said Rodney Evans was leaving with a bag of lobsters and walked to the car, which is when police said they saw the three kids inside.

"The male had left the vehicle first and went inside the store. The mother was left inside the vehicle with the kids," said Burnett.

Police said Evans first gave officers his father’s name instead of his own, so he was arrested for false impersonation as well as larceny.

Hodge’s husband called the News On 6 and said he believes the arrest was racially motivated and that his wife thought Evans was in the car with her kids.

Officers in Claremore said the arrest was not racially motivated.