Middletown police have arrested a woman who is accused of leaving her toddler at home alone while she went to work on Monday.
Officers were called to the New Meadows Leasing Office on Plaza Drive around 10 a.m. after getting a report of a child in the middle of the road.
When police arrived, they said they spoke with a leasing agent for the New Meadows Apartments who said she had looked outside and noticed a small child in the middle of the road. The woman said that she approached the child and noticed she was crying.
According to police, when the child was found in the road, she was wearing a lightweight jacket and leggings. The temperature outside was 20 degrees.
Officers attempted to question the child, but could not get any information due to her young age, authorities said. The woman from the leasing office told officers that the child had told her she was 3 years old.
Shortly after, a woman in a vehicle pulled next to officers and asked if they had seen a small girl, police said. The woman was crying and said her friend went to work and left her daughter home alone.
When the woman saw the child, the child became excited, authorities said. The woman told officers that the 3-year-old's mother was 20-year-old Nyasia Roulhac and they were friends. She also said Roulhac was at work in Middletown.
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The woman then called Roulhac and told her the police had the child. Roulhac said she would come to the leasing office, officers said.
When Roulhac got to the leasing office, police said she told them she had to go to work and had nobody to watch the 3-year-old so she locked her inside of the apartment. She said that her work shift was from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
According to Roulhac, her mother used to watch the child, but does not want to anymore and she doesn't have money to pay for daycare.
Roulhac was arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment. She was held on a $10,000 bond.
Authorities said Roulhac currently has four other charges pending against her including assault, violation of a protective order, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.
