Police investigate after children found begging for money at gas station

An Indianapolis mother is under investigation after three of her young children were found begging for food and money outside a near east side gas station.

The children, ages 7, 5 and 3, were found walking unattended outside the Marathon station at 10th and Rural streets around 9:45 a.m. Sunday.

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department incident report stated that "one child had no shoes on, one no shirt on and the temperature was in the low 20’s."

The report also stated that one of the children was holding a sign that said "please give money."


Officers took the children to their home a couple blocks away on North Temple Avenue where their 9-and 13-year-old siblings were found sleeping alone. The children told police their mother had not come home the night before from her job at a nearby bar.

Child Protective Services took all five children into protective custody. When the mother came home, she told officers that she was overwhelmed by raising five kids on her own.

Police also said they found filthy conditions inside the home. The Sunday incident report stated officers found "trash, dried food, clothes and other things on the floor.  The beds had no sheets and the mattresses had holes in them."

Neighbors told Fox59 they have seen warning signs in the past.  Angela Powell, who lives down the street, said this is not the first time she has heard of the children asking strangers for food or money.

In fact, Powell said one of the kids asked her for food as she was walking by the house not long ago.

"Gave him a bag of chips and he tore into that bag of chips like he hadn't eaten in months," said Powell.

Fox59 is not identifying the mother because she has not been arrested or charged at the time of this report.

However, a search of police records reveals prior trouble involving violence and alcohol. In 2010, she was arrested and accused of beating her ex-husband and oldest daughter in an apparent drunken rage.