A San Benito mother is behind bars after she allegedly left her seven children alone inside the family car while she went into a local WIC office to take care of some paperwork.
It happened outside the Women Infant & Children (WIC) office at the Cameron County Annex off Williams Road and U.S. Expressway 77/83 in San Benito around 11 a.m. Monday.
San Benito police arrested 28-year-old Blanca Sifuentes on seven counts of child endangerment.
Investigators told Action 4 News that Sifuentes left her seven children ranging in ages from 2 months old to 8 years old inside a car for at least 30 minutes.
Police said the car and the air conditioning were left on but that that air conditioning was not working properly or at full capacity.
Sifuentes was inside the WIC office when somebody noticed the children inside the car and called police.
The San Benito mother appeared before Municipal Judge David Garza on Tuesday where she was issued $14,000 dollars in bonds.
Investigators told Action 4 News that Sifuentes has an immigration detainer filed against her.
The children were given over to the custody of the father.
At least two Rio Grande Valley children have died this summer after being left inside hot cars.
One child was from outside Mission in June while the other died in Cameron Park on July 5th.
A third child was unharmed but had rescued outside a Brownsville WalMart back in May.
It's not the first time a mother left her children in the car outside the San Benito WIC Office.
Another mother was arrested for the same crime back in June 2010.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT