A woman left her five-year-old son on the floor of her overheated car, covered in a towel in 32C heat, while she went shopping.
Mary Amber Moore, 32, was inside a supermarket when a passerby saw a young boy, draped in a towel, crying in a parked car with the windows rolled up.
Police arrived and found the car unlocked. The boy said his mother had told him to hide on the floor of the vehicle, covered, so no one would see him.
Police searched the Kmart superstore in Covington, Georgia, US, and searched her bag for her driving licence. There, they say they found a bottle of various prescription pills.
The woman then grabbed the pills and swallowed them before police could stop her. She claimed she swallowed the pills because she was fearful of being charged with putting them in the wrong bottle.
She was arrested and taken to hospital but was subsequently discharged and booked on charges of contributing to the depravation of a minor, obstruction of an officer and tampering with evidence.
The boy has now been placed with a family member.