4 kids found alone; sitter faces charges

Authorities arrested a North Little Rock woman accused of leaving four children under the age of 9 in an apartment while she went to get her car repaired, according to a police report.

An officer said he was at the Shorter College Garden apartments at 10:45 a.m. Monday investigating “an unrelated disturbance” when he saw a 1-year-old wearing only a diaper walking barefoot through the parking lot unattended.

After searching the complex in the 800 block of North Beech Street in North Little Rock, authorities found three 8-year-olds by themselves in an open apartment, according to the report. The children told police that 19-year-old Rachel Alexander had been watching them but had left.

Officers called Alexander, who reportedly said she was in Little Rock with her sister to get her car repaired. During the conversation, she originally lied to police, saying she had left the children with a woman named Shay, and refused to return to the apartment, according to the report.

Police wrote that her sister arrived instead and told authorities Alexander had stayed behind because she was afraid of being arrested. Alexander arrived shortly after and told police that she had left the sleeping children alone in the apartment because she did not want to wake them, the report states.

Alexander was arrested and booked at 1:40 p.m. into the Pulaski County jail on four counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor. Records show she remained in the jail Thursday in lieu of $10,000 bond.