PD: Heavily Intoxicated Mom Hid in Closet With Hungry Child to Avoid Arrest

A city woman, so drunk she could barely stand, was found hiding in a closet in her apartment attempting to avoid arrest alongside her 5-year-old, un-fed daughter, according to Middletown Police.

On May 22 about 9 p.m., police received a 911 hangup call from a home on Walnut Street and once there, spoke to a neighbor, who said the upstairs resident, Helen Cruz, 31, had asked for a ride to the package store earlier and mentioned "being in trouble," according to the report.

The neighbor also mentioned Cruz's young daughter who was often left alone when the bus dropped her home after school. The report says the neighbor has fed and taken in the girl in the past.

Police say no one opened the door, so South Fire personnel were called to break it open and found Cruz inside with her daughter, slurring her words, with glossy eyes and stumbling around.

The report says Cruz was unable to stand well and failed a sobriety test then swore at officers when asked how much alcohol she had consumed. In the car, Cruz swore and yelled at her daughter and refused to name a family member who could care for her, the report says.

At headquarters, the girl told police she hadn't eaten "since school," the report says, adding, "mommy and daddy were arguing and it was all mommy because daddy only swore twice," and that Cruz was drinking something from a clear plastic bottle and fell off the couch onto the floor.

When authorities knocked not the door, the 5-year-old said, the two were hiding in a closet, according to the report, so her mom wouldn't go to jail. In the cell, police say, Cruz "stuffed her blanket in the toilet and began kicking the door while yelling."

Cruz was charged with risk of injury to a child.