Florida Mom Allegedly Left Kids In Car To Shoplift. The Car Then Caught Fire.

A central Florida woman is facing arson and child neglect charges after she allegedly left her two children in a car while shoplifting in a mall, and then that car caught fire.

Alicia Moore, 24, was arrested last week following the blaze in Oviedo, just north of Orlando, that left one child with first-degree burns, according to a copy of her arrest report.

Moore allegedly left her children inside the car around noon on May 26 for about an hour as she was allegedly watched by security shoplifting inside a Dillard’s department store with an unidentified man. As she started exiting the Oviedo Mall, she saw the car “engulfed in flames” and dropped the merchandise before going outside, according to the arrest report. 

Bystanders helped rescue her two children, identified by Fox 35 Orlando as being ages 2 and 4, from the burning car. The kids were then taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, where one child was found to have suffered several first-degree burns, including to her face and ears, according to the arrest report.

The vehicle was described as totaled by police, with images of the fire shared by the city with local media outlets showing at least one window blowing out amid the flames. 

Moore was later arrested by the Orlando Police Department on an unrelated outstanding warrant; while in custody, she was charged in the blaze. 

“She’s being charged with the arson because she did leave the kids alone in the car with some sort of lighter, matches, I don’t know what it was that set the car on fire, but the children are her responsibility,” Lisa McDonald, communications manager for the city of Oviedo, told Fox 35 News.

Moore is being held on $48,000 bond for the aggravated child neglect and arson charges, as well as for four charges unrelated to the fire. Those charges are petit theft, as well as battery and assault of a person over the age of 65, jailhouse records show.

Moore did not have an attorney listed.