GASTON COUNTY, N.C. – A Gastonia woman was arrested after police said she left her three young children home alone drinking vodka.
Tyeisha Coneisha Streater, 26, is charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the incident. Authorities responded to Streater's home on Hartford Drive in Gastonia around 7:30 p.m. Monday. The children are ages 7, 5, and 4, according to an arrest warrant.
According to the Gastonia Police Department, officers found Streater’s 7-year-old daughter outside their home defecating and drinking vodka. Officers at the scene discovered multiple empty bottles of vodka and said the young girl was simulating sex acts on one of her brothers.
Police alleged that Streater left the children home alone for at least seven hours without supervision.
Tuesday afternoon, a judge set bond at $25,000.
Streater begged for the bond to be lowered, claiming a caseworker with the department of health and human services told her they did not find alcohol in her children’s systems.
“The alcohol bottle that was there had been filled with water,” Streater told the judge.
“I’m not justifying anything,” Streater said. ‘’I understand it was inappropriate for me to leave my children there, but I thought they were asleep.”
Streater said she went to the laundry mat and was only gone for about an hour and a half. She said she took her youngest child, an 8-month-old, with her. She told the judge she has never been in trouble before and works full time at a local bank. Her grandmother normally watches the children when she is not home.
The judge did not lower Streater’s bond and encouraged her to submit new evidence to her attorney.