Another ‘Tanning Mom’ Faces Child Endangerment Charges

Police say that 28 year-old Krista Mann is facing a charge of child endangerment after the Lancaster, PA mother left her 6 year-old and 10 month-old in an idling car while she ran across the street to an Elizabethtown tanning salon.

This comes just one week after our last ‘tanning mom’ was charged with child endangerment for letting her 5 year-old daughter soak up some artificial sun at a Nutley, NJ tanning salon.

Reports indicate that an Elizabethtown police officer was checking meters when he spotted a 2008 white Suzuki with the two young children patiently waiting in the parking lot. The car’s windows were rolled down roughly 1-inch and the car was idling.

When the officer approached the 6 year-old girl and asked her where her mother or father was, the little girl pointed across the street to the tanning salon. As the officer inquired further, the young girl quickly became upset, saying that she’s not allowed to talk to strangers.

After the officer located Mann inside the tanning salon, she was ordered to get dressed and leave the salon immediately. Admitting that she left the children in the car, she called the act “stupid”, seemingly remorseful for her decision.

In addition to being charged child endangerment, Mann is also being charged with leaving a child in an unattended motor vehicle and driving on a suspended license.

Despite her poor decisions, the neighbors of the newly minted ‘tanning mom’ are declaring that while there is no excuse for leaving your children unattended in a vehicle, Mann is still a good mother and doesn’t deserve to have her kids taken from her.

“There are a lot of people out there who do these types of things and get their kids taken away,” Alesha Saez said. “She’s a great mom and she deserves to have her kids, so this is the kind of thing she shouldn’t do.”

“It’s a mistake and I know she’s devastated,” neighbor Trish Rowles said.

Elizabethtown Police Chief Jack Mentzer tells The Huffington Post

“The thing that we hope occurs is that we raise public awareness to the fact that we should not be leaving our children unattended in vehicles, particularly with the keys in the ignition,”  adding that,

“Kids are curious by nature. All it would have taken is the 6-year-old moving the gear-selector in the car and goodness knows what would have happened.”

Do you agree with Krista Mann’s neighbors? Or does the new ‘tanning mom’ deserve to have her kids taken from her?