GULFPORT, Fla. (WHDH) — A mother is facing child neglect charges after leaving her three young children alone on a school bus that had been converted into a makeshift home, authorities said.
Officer Christopher Priest was conducting a routine patrol around 4:45 a.m. Saturday when he found three children — ages 3, 6 and 9 — inside a bus that was parked in the Gulfport Municipal Beach parking lot, according to Gulfport police.
The children allegedly told Priest that their mother had left them there around 9 p.m. Friday and went out on a boat.
Marine patrol began canvassing dozens of boats anchored just offshore and found the children’s mother, 33-year-old Andrea Kerins, onboard a vessel owned by 46-year-old Yuri Radzibaba, police said.
She allegedly had been smoking marijuana and intended to spend the night on the boat.
The children had no access to a phone to call anyone for help, according to police.
Inside of the bus, officers allegedly found a bin of mostly perishable food that had been left unrefrigerated, a five-gallon bucket that was being used as a toilet and a propane tank inside the passenger area.
The children had no clothing other than what they were wearing, police added.
Kerins was charged with three counts of felony child neglect.
The Florida Department of Children and Families took the three children into their care.
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