Pennsylvania police recently arrested a mother and daughter after the duo was discovered shooting up heroin in their car with the daughter’s 6-month-old child in the back seat.
Police received a call from a woman at a gas station in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who reported that someone sitting in a car at the pumps was injecting something with a syringe into her arm. The caller is reportedly a Children and Youth Services worker.
Police found Karen Gillespie, 43, and her daughter Courtney Jording, 23, using heroin. “The daughter was shooting heroin into the mother’s arm while at the gas pumps,” Greensburg Police Capt. Chad Zucco said.
Authorities also discovered Jording’s 6-month-old son in the back seat of the car.
“The car seat was not secured; it was just sitting in the back seat,” Zucco said. “Further, the child had a wet diaper. [Officers] looked in the car to find diapers for the baby, and there were none.”
In total, police reportedly seized 41 stamp bags of heroin, 16 empty stamp bags, four syringes and two spoons from the car.
“We’re thankful to the person that called,” the police captain said. “We’re thankful that we got there quick and were able to stop them quick before they got back on the road and hurt somebody or hurt the baby or anybody else.”
While the infant has been placed under the care of a family member, the mother-daughter duo now faces charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal use of a communication facility, possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and endangering the welfare of a child. The two are being held on $10,000 bond at Westmoreland County Prison.
According to WPXI, this was the third heroin arrest of the week in the Greensburg area.
The drug also made headlines when the chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration declared that “heroin is clearly more dangerous than marijuana,” The Huffington Post reports. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released statistics that revealed heroin use has increased by 60 percent over the last decade, CTV News documents.
