Kelsey McMurtry was arrested in Nashville after leaving her 13-month-old child locked in a blisteringly-hot car for 30 minutes while she auditioned to be a stripper in a club.
The 24-year-old, who works as a bikini model and MMA ring girl, was at Deja Vu strip club on Thursday to audition for a dancing job. She left her daughter in a car outside the club under the supervision of 19-year-old Summer Taylor, according to WKRN Nashville.
Police were alerted to the unattended girl after witnesses raised the alarm. McMurtry was brought out of the club to open the car.
The arresting officer said the windows were fully rolled up and the girl was sweating profusely into a heavy jacket. The warrant details the temperature as having been 72 degrees Fahrenheit but it was estimated to have been 100 degrees inside the car. The young girl was taken to a hospital for care and is now with child services.
Taylor told police she intermittently left the child unsupervised so as to see McMurtry's audition, never being away for more than a few minutes, but witnesses told police she had been left unattended for 30 minutes.
Both McMurtry and Taylor were arrested and charged with child neglect. McMurtry was also charged with criminal impersonation after giving police a false identity. She is being held on a $40,000 bond and both are due in court on April 18.
The average cost for infant childcare in Tennessee is $5,857 a year, one of the lowest levels in the US. However, as working mothers in the US earn an average 71 cents for every dollar a man makes, women like McMurtry can struggle to support their child.
Some 342,000 families are headed by women in Tennessee with 37 percent of them earning incomes below the poverty line.