Police in the US state of Texas have detained a woman after she allegedly abandoned her young granddaughter at a busy airport to catch a flight to Honduras, officials said Thursday.
The incident took place Thursday afternoon, when airline staff noticed the girl, who local media said is eight years old, standing alone and crying out for her parents at the enormous George Bush International Airport in Houston.
Houston Airport System communications director Augusto Bernal said the girl’s parents had left to get her passport and left the Spanish-speaking child in the care of her grandmother.
But the woman then boarded the airplane while “the girl was left unattended in the check-in lobby,” said Bernal.
With the help of an interpreter, airport staff were able to locate the girl’s parents and she was reunited with them. According to media reports, the girl was carrying a piece of paper with her family’s phone number on it.
Local media identified the grandmother as 51-year-old Euceda Maldonado.
Bernal said authorities removed Maldonado from the aircraft and she was taken into custody.
“She was arrested, basically,” he said.
