Mom Arrested for Driving With 9-Year-Old on Car Roof to Hold Down a Kiddie Pool

There is no good reason for putting a child on the roof of a moving car. But a Wisconsin woman stunned her friends, neighbors, and local police when she wanted to put a plastic kiddie pool on the roof of her car, but she did not have anything to strap it down with. So she put her 9-year-old son on top of the car and told him to hold the pool in place.

According to Fox 6 Now, Amber Schmunk was trying to transport a plastic pool on September 9. That’s a pretty difficult endeavor. I wouldn’t know how to transport a plastic pool. But one hopes that most of us would know not to stick a small child in it and put it on the roof of a minivan. Unfortunately, that’s what Schmunk reportedly did.

Fortunately, people noticed and called 911.

A child riding in a pool on top of a minivan is the sort of thing people notice. Witnesses realized what a horrible, dangerous idea that was and called police.

According to the police report, Schmunk said there was no room in the minivan for the pool. She put it on the roof but had no way to hold it in place. So, inexplicably, she decided to have her son ride on top to hold it down.

The police report says the 911-caller followed the car until she pulled over and took him off the roof. Then she folded up the pool and put it in the minivan. Apparently it did fit after all.

Schmunk thought it was not a big deal.

She told police she thought it was OK because her father had let her do stuff like that at that age. She also said the boy was strapped to the car. She didn’t think it was a big deal.

Police arrested Schmunk and charged her with second-degree recklessly endangering safety. That’s a felony, and it carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine.

What do you think of those charges? Let us know in the comments.

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(Image: iStockPhoto / bmcent1)

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