Police: Mom High On "Flakka" Abandons Baby
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
BOYNTON BEACH (CBSMiami) -- A mother is facing a child neglect charge after abandoning her baby while high on a synthetic drug called "flakka," according to Boynton Beach Police.
Officers said they responded to a call Thursday of an unattended baby, crying and shivering, in front of an office building just feet away from Gulfstream Boulevard, with a Wal-Mart across the street and railroad tracks a few feet away.
While they were there a woman ran up to officers crying and screaming, "my baby," police said.
CLICK HERE To Watch Carey Codd's Report
Officers later took her in for questioning after the woman identified herself as 20-year old Qushanna Doby, the mother of the baby.
Officers said she was unable to tell them where she was and how she got to where she was.
According to her arrest report, during questioning, she admitted to smoking flakka the night before while hanging out with friends.
From there, she made various stops including a Delray Beach hotel and a Wal-Mart.
It is unclear if the child was with her the whole time, but by the time she got to Wal-Mart, she had the child with her.
Doby, according to the report, told police she "fed the child some bacon cheddar chips and put Sprite in her baby bottle for her to drink."
The next thing, she said, she remembered was waking up in front of a Delray Beach Dunkin' Donuts without her baby.
The report states she ran back to the Wal-Mart where she saw authorities and ran over to the scene where the baby was found.
Police said she admitted to smoking flakka regularly which has caused her to have hallucinations in the past.
She is now facing one charge of child neglect.
A woman who works at the building where the child was found snapped photos showing what was left behind – several diapers, a bottle, a towel and a child's shoe.
That woman, who did not want to be identified, said she works at a drug treatment facility where the child was found outside. What frightened the woman and others is all the traffic from the Wal-Mart and the dangerous railroad tracks and what could've happened to the child.
"The thought that (the child) could've teetered off somewhere, over the railroad tracks is really scary," she told CBS 4's Carey Codd.
The Department of Children and Families tells CBS 4 News that they took Doby's child away and placed the child in foster care.
We've seen what flakka can do to people -- making people try to break into a police department or run naked through the streets. The woman who works nearby said she's heard the horror stories about flakka.
"Flakka makes you out of your mind," she said. "You don't know what you're doing what's going on until you come down from it."
The woman, who says she's in recovery, hopes Doby gets the help she needs.
"I'm in recovery myself so it just really hits home that there's a child, there's a mother out there that's struggling, that's suffering from the disease of addiction," the woman said.
Jail records in Palm Beach County show Doby is being held on $3,000 bond.
