A mom left her young child in a car in the freezing cold while she went gambling. Cops say it was the second time they caught her doing it. 

Michaela Dawn Rayls, 32, was arrested on Christmas Day in front of a Food Mart on Highway 48, according to the Georgia Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office.

It was reported by a store employee that Rayls left her child in the car for more than an hour while the temperature outside was about 30 degrees, as she and her friend gambled at the slot machines. She did not leave the store to check on the child.

When Rayls was brought into custody, she gave authorities a fictitious identity. She is accused of acting recklessly by endangering the child’s safety and providing an officer with a fake name. Rayls’ actions indicate that she was also attempting to avoid accountability for her actions.

Rayls had been detained previously for the same type of behavior when she left her small child in a car by himself while she gambled at a Chattooga County gas station on February 23, 2022. 

In a similar incident, a woman from Bridgeport, Connecticut named Tiffany Covington was accused of leaving her two children in a hot car while getting her nails done in June 2022. The children were found unconscious in the car. 

Covington allegedly punched one of the cops who attempted to arrest her, which caused the officer’s body camera to fall to the ground and she bit the cop’s hands as he attempted to handcuff her while she tried to flee.

Tiffany Covington is accused of resisting arrest on one count, assaulting a police officer on one count, and posing a danger of injury to a child on two counts.

Covington had been free on a bail of $75,000 for a previous arrest. The judge restricted her bail release.

Lucky for the kids and Covington, they did not die in the car.

The nonprofit child safety organization, Kids and Car Safety, reported that an average of 38 children die due to being left in hot cars every year in the US. Over 1,000 children have died in hot cars since 1990.