--- title: Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer' description: The 3-year-old complained of hunger and told police, "I need a beer" canonical: https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-01T20:07:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:31:02.262Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer' og:description: The girl was "extremely dirty" and covered in red bumps og:url: https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer' twitter:description: The girl was "extremely dirty" and covered in red bumps twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer'  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 1, 2016 8:07 PM CUT  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 1, 2016 8:07 PM CUT A woman was arrested after her 3-year-old daughter was discovered [wandering around their apartment complex](http://www.fox34.com/story/31348682/lpd-investigates-alleged-child-neglect-case "undefined") alone and complaining of hunger in Lubbock, Texas. The child told police “I need a beer” and appeared to be both “extremely dirty” and covered in red bumps, according to a police report obtained by Fox 34. When police officers visited the child’s home, they found cockroaches, moldy dishes and the child’s mother, 42-year-old Shauna Bennett, who was sleeping. Bennett told officers she didn’t know where her daughter was. “This was a clear neglect on the mother’s part,” Lt. Ray Mendoza of the Lubbock Police Dept. said. “It was the conditions the child was living under and the fact that the mom was completely oblivious to where the child had been or where it was at the time.” The apartment complex’s owner said he had seen the child wandering alone two weeks before, though a neighbor who babysits the child said the incident was a “misunderstanding” and that the child “has a lot of energy and … knows how to get out of the apartment.” Bennett was charged with abandoning and endangering a child. \[[_Fox_](http://www.fox34.com/story/31348682/lpd-investigates-alleged-child-neglect-case "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/"},"headline":"Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer'","datePublished":"2016-03-01T20:07:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:31:02.262Z","description":"The girl was \"extremely dirty\" and covered in red bumps","url":"https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4243498/child-wandering-i-need-a-beer/","name":"Mother Arrested After 3-Year-Old Tells Cop 'I Need a Beer'"}}]}] ```