Detective Finds Toddler Alone in Car, Takes One Look Into the Distance with Binoculars and Knows What Needs to Happen

Dangerous and stupid weirdness, it seems, always finds Florida.

This time, however, it’s not the proverbial “Florida Man,” but a Florida mom — one who’s in very deep trouble after she allegedly left her child alone in a running car so she could go out swimming.

Her excuse? She says she wanted to “meet sharks.”

According to WBBH-TV, the arrest happened Monday in Bokeelia, Florida, where the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called to Capt’n Con’s restaurant at roughly 10:30 a.m. in response to a report of a child left unattended in a vehicle.

The arrest report cited a witness, apparently the caller, who said he saw a woman park her car at the pier and turn up the radio.

She then began swimming around the pier. The witness then noticed that there was a 2-year-old crawling in the car — which at least had the air conditioner running.

While still on the phone with police, the witness said they saw the mother swim farther away from the pier, according to Fox News.

At this time, Lee County Fire and emergency medical services arrived on the scene. A detective checked on the child and found he wasn’t in distress — so then, he started looking for the mother, later identified as 41-year-old Allison Daugherty.

Daugherty reportedly began swimming farther from the pier, so the detective kept an eye on her with binoculars. With the detective tracking her and EMS helping the detective, the Boca Grande Marine Unit was finally able to catch up with her in the water.