Tinley Park mom leaves child in car — endangerment?

This is just nuts. Normally I take a very cautious view and am the first to criticize parents who take chances. But there were no chances being taken here!!! The car was locked, not running, mom was just STEPS away and the car was never out of her sight. I feel awful for this poor woman. What is the law? That a child has to be in your arms at all times?

Treffly Coyne did nothing wrong. Good Luck to you. Samara I couldn’t read your whole article. I quit after the first few sentences, unrealistic. In this world today anything can happen anytime or place. The police have gotten to the point in this country,with the largest prison population in the world, that they believe that their beliefs are law. They have become a society of Blue. Police now over react rather than react. Common sense seems to be missing in training police officers. Once Again, Mrs. Coyne the best of luck to you, my prayers are with you.

Mrs. Coyne’s mistake was arguing with a lady cop. I can just hear the tirade coming from the police officer. Anyone who has been pulled over by a female officer should know to only say “Yes, ma’am; no ma’am; I’m really sorry, ma’am; you’re right, ma’am.” I hope the judge will recognize this clear abuse of power, and will award the officer a dog to kick instead of the citizenry.

Give those police officers a break. You have no idea how much pressure they are under to meet quota for arrests every month!

Treffly Coyne, I wish you luck. You are a great mom and I hope you win. I doubt any sane judge/jury would convict you.

And this “Samara”, good luck in your mental rehab. Don’t get arrested for leaving your medication bottle for too long.

I won’t attack Samara, everyone else seems to have done a fine job on that… but I have to wonder…

- Baby left in car for 10 minutes
- Car locked, hazards on
- Mom was a few yards away
- Two older children were with her

Everyone has talked about the 2 year old left in the car seat, but little has been said about the trauma the older two children suffered watching Treffly, first being accosted verbally by the community service officer, then subsequently arrested by a police officer. The anguish these two young children suffered on that day, and I’m sure the days following, is more of a case of abuse than leaving the two year old to begin with.

So what happens now? Treffly will very likely be aquitted, but what kind of repercussions will the community service officer and the police officer have to deal with? Are they being cited for over-reacting? Have they been put on administrative leave? Is there any kind of re-education happening that will teach them how to appropriately deal with something similar in future?

We read about all sorts of abuse scandles in the papers every day, and if there’s an arrest to be made, the children are removed from the situation as quickly as possible to avoid the trauma I mentioned above.

This police officer and the social community worker sicken me. They weren’t worried about the best interest of the child, they were worried about “teaching her a lesson”. That’s for the courts, which a citation would have most certainly dealt with at the appropriate time, in the appropriate forum.

God Bless you Treffly, I will pray for you tomorrow, and for the judge to see the truth among the madness.

You know, when the child-savers went to the lawmakers to get the authority from the government to persecute neglective parents they showed pictures of children starved and beaten black and blue by parents who were drug users, etc. So now lawmakers give CPS & police all the power in the world to protect children and this is how they use their power- arresting a mom who stepped a few feet away to teach her children about charitable giving? Please- do a reality check. Stop wasting the energies of people who need to be spending their efforts on truly neglected children. It’s clearly an abuse of authority. This is a growing trend that needs to stop. Paranoid people who have had a bad experience want everyone to over-react. If you have had a bad experience, I’m sorry, but punish the criminals who did it- not earnest parents.

Wow, Samara is more nutty than the Police on this matter, and that is saying a lot. Both need to experience their karma so they can know how much damage they are causing with their vitriolic words and actions against an obviously innocent woman in this matter. They not only insult and injure Treffly Coyne and parents like her, they also insult and injure themselves. It would be best if the authorities and people like Samara stop this abusive crossing of lines immediately, and apologize to Treffly Coyne, and all parents like her. “Judge not lest you be judged”… does that ring a bell? “Du du du Ding!… The fries are ready!”

Treffly, I hope you win today! You did nothing wrong. Anyone who has 2 kids or more knows what a juggling act being a mom is. I’ve done similar with my own. I NEVER leave my kids out of sight, I NEVER leave my keys in the car, I NEVER leave them for longer than it takes to either drop a letter in the mailbox or fill the van with gas, and I always lock the doors and arm the alarm. This is basically what this mother did and so many other good parents do.
But then I see in the news of how a car was stolen with a toddler/baby in the car. And while the majority of the time there is a happy ending, you never hear about those parents getting their child taken away by CPS or the parents hauled off to prison for their neglect to keep their vehicle in sight, their keys with them and the doors locked. Big double standard don’t you think?!
Treffly Coyne should be found not guilty and her children and the children’s friend should receive psychological counseling at the expense of the arresting city police. Abandoning and scaring to death 3 vulnerable little girls by the police is inexcusable. A big apology is in order from the police - but of course we know that will never happen!
Good luck!

This is so ridiculous that I don’t even know where to begin. She was no further away from her car than she would have been if she returned a cart to the cart corral. She locked the car and the child was sleeping. I absolutely would have done the same thing and would not have thought twice about it. Besides the trauma to the mother…what about the impact on the children. The older children were terrified and probably don’t trust the police to actually protect them now. Not to mention the trauma for the little one to be hauled off by strangers…I find that to be much more damaging to her than sleeping in a locked car that her mother is in plain sight of!! As far as Samara’s comments….I don’t even have words to describe your thoughts…insane comes to mind but that seems to be putting it too mildly.

I wish this mother all my best in this situation and she will be in my prayers!

Sam, is that short for Samara?