A Gwinnett County mother is facing a misdemeanor charge after police said she left her 17-year-old daughter alone near Stone Mountain Highway late Thursday night with no money and no working cellphone service. The teenager, according to investigators, had to make her way through the dark to a nearby McDonald’s just to find a way to call for help.
Police say 37-year-old Delishia Dunn left her daughter near the highway around 11 p.m. Thursday following an argument between the two, according to a report from Yahoo News. The teen had no cash on her and her phone had no active service plan, leaving her without an obvious way to reach anyone once her mother drove off.
Investigators say the girl ran through the dark to a McDonald’s near East Park Place, where she was able to connect to the restaurant’s Wi-Fi and dial 911.
. Officers who responded found her upset and alone in an unfamiliar area before eventually taking her home and leaving her in the care of another relative.
Investigator Says Mother Made No Effort to Return
Gwinnett County Police Department investigator Brock Marks said the mother left her daughter stranded, according to the Crime Watch Atlanta post. Investigators told the outlet that Dunn made no immediate attempt to locate her daughter or come back for her after driving away, and that she was later reached by phone as part of the investigation.
The Gwinnett County Police Department charged Dunn with misdemeanor reckless conduct, and a judge signed an arrest warrant for her shortly after midnight Friday. As of the report, Dunn had not yet been taken into custody.
Community Members React to the Case
The case has drawn concern from local residents. Racquel Jones said she would not leave her child in the street, and added that children in similar situations face risks of abduction and sex trafficking, per the same Instagram account’s reporting.
The incident echoes another Gwinnett County case from 2024, when a 3-year-old boy was found running through traffic near DeShong Park at around 10:30 p.m. after his mother allegedly left him alone at a picnic table so he could learn a lesson, according to a police report cited by WSB-TV. In that case, the boy had run about a quarter mile from the park before a couple found him near South Rockbridge Road, and police said 34 minutes passed between the initial call about him being in the road and his mother alerting them that she could not find him. That mother, Gabrielle Buckley, was 28, and was arrested that night on a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge, and her boyfriend also faced reckless conduct charges, WSB-TV reported. While the two cases share similarities, the evidence does not establish a broader pattern connecting them.
