Child left for 9 hours in car at casino, mom arrested

by David Krough and Mike Benner



LA CENTER, Wash. -- A Clackamas woman was arrested Tuesday after casino employees told police her 3-year-old had been left in a parked car for more than nine hours.

It happened in the parking lot of the Palace Casino Tuesday morning.

Employees called the police after a security guard heard a child crying in an SUV around 1:30 p.m.

"With as dark as the windows were in the vehicle I don't think the child would've been located had the child not been crying and security not walking by or somebody walking by at the time," said Sergeant Jerry Lester of the La Center Police Department.

Two officers in the area arrested 32-year-old Valerie Tran, of Clackamas, for leaving the child in an unattended car. She told them she had been gambling since around midnight and had been checking in on the child.

"It may be 60 degrees outside, but the temperatures can soar inside a vehicle," said Lester. "It's unacceptable behavior."

The child was not hurt and police said the child was put into the custody of child services.

"In my opinion the kid should be taken away," said Valene Welk of Clackamas.

(KGW Reporter Mike Benner contributed to this report)

And you know these women watch the news and see what happens to other children and/or women who do this.

It just makes no sense.

how did midnight to 1:30 become nine hours,,this news story seems lacking in details,,,,

Sad we have already had one death in my area this year due to a child was forgotten by a friend that was suppose to drop the child off at day care and forget too... They remembered after going outside for something then remembered they had left the child in the car seat in the back seat...

They just found another toddler that for some reason was outside by themselves and got into a neighbors car... it is hitting in the 90's here now.