“I’ll be back as soon as I steal a few things,” Alicia Moore told her children, “please don’t set the car on fire or anything.” Guess what happened. The negligent mother and retail pirate was arrested after her car caught fire with her kids inside.
Unattended children rescued
As related by Florida’s Oviedo Police Department, 24-year-old Alicia Moore “parked in a Dillard’s parking lot around noon May 26, leaving two children in the car.” She was in the mall shoplifting. According to the police report, “Moore went inside the store where loss prevention personnel watched her and an unknown man shoplift items for about an hour.”
As she was leaving, Moore “saw her car engulfed in flames, dropped the stolen merchandise and ran out of the store.”
Shoppers who noticed the flames helped rescue the two children, who were quickly transported to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital. One suffered “first-degree burns to her face and ears.”
Guess why CNN isn’t showing Alicia Moore’s picture, when almost every other outlet is. Take a wild guess…. https://t.co/geXyK4RWwr
— Ari Goldkind (@AriGoldkind) June 3, 2023
Thankfully, that’s a “superficial” injury about as bad as a “mild sunburn” and won’t cause any complications or scarring. As soon as they started interrogating Moore, she demanded a lawyer and clammed up.
Oviedo had to call in neighboring officers from Orlando Police Department to make the actual arrest because Ms. Moore had “outstanding warrants in other counties.” Ones totally unrelated to what happened at the mall.
While they had her conveniently on ice in the Orange County Jail, Oviedo charged her with “aggravated child neglect and arson.” They don’t care how the fire started at this point but it probably wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t leave her children unattended. Investigation may reveal more sinister origins to the fire.
What ignited the fire
“It is undetermined what ignited the fire, however, if Moore was not being neglectful, it is unlikely [the child] would have been injured.”
They aren’t suggesting that Moore started the fire, or left something else unattended which could have started it, but they listed arson just to be on the safe side. Leaving your children in a hot car is negligence even without a fire.
Just to make her day a little brighter, authorities also added four more charges to her list for “petty theft, battery, and assault from previous incidents.” She’s being detained on a $48,000 bond.
Alicia Moore, since CNN won't show you. Whenever they omit a photo of the one arrested, you know what they're hiding. Color matters to CNN pic.twitter.com/yUpmbrNoCz
— Rep. Adam Schitt (@MrJP2003) June 4, 2023
On Friday, she was arraigned and “pleaded not guilty to both charges related to the incident with her children.” Her public defender isn’t talking to the press.
Unconfirmed reports are adding rumors and speculation. Some reports list three toddlers but the correct count appears to be two. One of the kids was able to get a door open as passersby were already approaching the fireball.
Some say the children may have been playing with a lighter but either way, it’s arson because under Florida law, the fire happened while she was committing a felony. One report lists the car as stolen in the headline, without explaining in the story where they got that from.
