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Police say mother left toddler home alone while shoplifting

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A 31-year-old woman told police she left her 2-year-old daughter home with a babysitter before she was arrested on a felony shoplifting charge at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia.

Police later discovered that was a lie.

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Michelle Mira allegedly stole $500 worth of makeup from a specialty store in the mall Jan. 28, according to a Dunwoody police report.

Dunwoody police Sgt. Aaron Belt told WSB-TV he had a hunch that Mira wasn’t telling the truth about her daughter and sent an officer to the Johns Creek home about 8 p.m. on a welfare check.

The girl’s father, Scott Hoefer, met police at the residence but told police he did not have a key to get in.

When police entered the home, the 2-year-old was found asleep in her crib with two separate "ambient sound type devices" on the highest level, creating an overwhelming amount of noise, the officer wrote in the report.

Additionally, two mattresses were placed between the bedroom door and the crib "as if they were being used to subdue any sound of the child crying," the officer wrote.

"The moral of the story is don't leave your kids home alone," Belt said. "I mean, it's bad enough if you're going to go out and commit a crime and shoplift, but don't leave your children at home unsupervised by themselves."

Mira was arrested and the child was released into her father’s care.

On Saturday, Mira paid a $2,000 bail and was released from the DeKalb County jail.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.