Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.
An 8-month-old girl was found on a central Las Vegas sidewalk Saturday night after her mother left her in a running car outside a gas station convenience store, only to have the car stolen.
The car thief, whom the mother met outside the store, left the child six blocks away and has yet to be found.
The mother, Christina Sarpy, 26, was arrested on a felony count of child endangerment. Sarpy had gone inside the store to play video poker, police said.
Police say she gave the car thief a cigarette and money to watch the car. He did, for a few minutes, before driving away with it from the Rebel/76 gas station on the southwest corner of Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
Dorothy Orr, an 83-year-old grandmother, found the girl as she was unloading groceries from her car Saturday night on Minnesota Street, a few blocks away from the gas station.
Orr, a retired nurse, heard what sounded like a crying baby.
About 50 feet from Orr's house at the base of a basketball hoop at the corner of Minnesota Street and Nebraska Avenue, an infant was "screaming bloody murder" and trying to climb out of a car seat, Orr said.
After dropping her groceries to the ground, a surprised Orr walked over to the child, named Zoie Jones. Orr hoped to find an adult nearby. Finding no one who appeared to be responsible for the baby, Orr asked a young boy who had been riding his bicycle with a few friends at the far end of the street to carry the child into her house.
"There was nobody else around," said Orr, who has a cracked rib and needed the help of the neighborhood child to carry the baby inside.
Orr said she was afraid the baby would have overheated had she not found the child as soon as she did. Around 6 p.m. on Saturday the temperature in the Las Vegas Valley was about 97 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Within five minutes of her having called police, several squad cars arrived, Orr said.
The police report says the baby was asleep in her car seat when Sarpy pulled into the parking lot of the gas station.
Police said she left the car running and offered the man outside the store a cigarette and a few dollars in exchange for keeping an eye on her turquoise 1994 Geo Prism.
Sarpy went into the store to get change, and was only in the store for a few seconds, she told police.
But Eric Gotchy, a cashier on duty on Saturday evening, said Sarpy had been in the store playing a video poker machine for 15 to 20 minutes when she discovered her car had been stolen.
He called 311 to report it stolen, "but she didn't tell me a baby was inside the car," Gotchy said, noting he would have called 911 if he had known.
The officer who responded to the store to investigate the incident also said she doubted Sarpy's description of what had happened.
"Through an extensive investigation, including videotapes of the 76 Station, I observed something quite different,"the officer wrote in the police report.
Sarpy entered the store not to ask for change, but to play video poker, the report says. She played for about 10 minutes, stood up and looked out the window toward her car, went back to the video poker machine for about one minute, then went outside.
At that point she realized her car had been stolen and went back in the store to report it to the cashier.
Sarpy put her child in danger by "asking a stranger to watch her priceless possessions and then gambling while her child is fast asleep with no supervision," according to the police report.
Joyce Salmon, an assistant director of Clark County Child Protective Services, would not say if the agency had previously investigated Sarpy. Only in the event of a child's death does Nevada law permit the agency to disclose information on prior cases involving the deceased child, Salmon said.
Jeannie Davis, who lives across the street from Orr, said the police brought Sarpy to Minnesota Street where Sarpy thanked the neighbors who had gathered outside for finding her child.
The executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling said poor decision-making is often a symptom of a gambling addiction.
"With problem gamblers it's very common for them to neglect normal responsibilities," the council's Carol O'Hare said.
If the police determine Sarpy may have an addiction, O'Hare said she hoped they would help her treat the problem, not just its symptoms.
"This is a good example where we would hope that someone would give her information on getting help (if she needs it)," O'Hare said.
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