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Florida woman who left 2 kids with Uber driver for hours tells police ‘I’m just a mom’
News Nation Now ^

Posted on 02/24/2026 9:50:12 AM PST by simpson96

SUNRISE, Fla. (WFLA) — A woman was arrested in Broward County, Florida, after allegedly leaving her two young kids with an Uber driver for hours, according to authorities.

An arrest report said that the Uber driver picked up 32-year-old Emily Sabogal and her two young children, ages 3 and 4 years old.

The Uber driver told police that Sabogal had a cup of what he believed to be liquor. At one point during the ride, the Uber driver said that Sabogal grabbed his phone and canceled the ride. She then gave him $10 and asked him to stop the vehicle.

According to the report, Sabogal told the driver she’d be back in three minutes before exiting the vehicle and walking away. When she had still not returned an hour later, the driver called her.

Sabogal told him she would be back in 12 minutes and then promptly hung up.

The driver reached out to the police after he tried to reach her once more and was unsuccessful.

Body cam video shows the officers arriving at the scene to find the visibly distraught Uber driver parked on the side of the road with the two children inside his vehicle.

The video shows the driver explaining to the officers the situation, stating that he suspected Sabogal was drunk before pulling out a cup she had left behind and asking the officer to smell it.

The officer called for backup, relaying what the driver had told him.

“No clue where she is right now, just left the kids — obviously she doesn’t know this gentleman, he’s just an Uber driver — and walked off,” the officer said.

Additional body camera video shows officers locating Sabogal at a shopping plaza near a McDonald’s located about 2.2 miles from where she abruptly exited the Uber.

The officer is seen on the video approached Sabogal and asking her, “do you have two kids? Were you just in an Uber with your two kids?”

He then sternly tells her to sit down to which Sabogal responds, “Okay, but why are you treating me like that?”

“Because you just left your kids with an Uber, and we’re all over town looking for you.”

Sabogal again responds by telling the officer her phone died.

During the encounter, the officer asks Sabogal multiple times why she left the Uber, which she seemed unable to explain.

“I have not done anything wrong,” Sabogal said. “I have no idea what is going on. I’m sorry, I get what you, I get your job. I get your whole persona. I get it.”

“I’m just a mom,” she added later on.

Officers with the Sunrise Police Department arrested Sabogal on charges stemming from child neglect without great bodily harm and desertion of a child.

An investigation revealed Sabogal had been at a restaurant earlier with her children, where she had consumed multiple drinks at the bar, the report said.

The report also noted that Restaurant staff told investigators that Sabogal is a regular and frequents the establishment five days a week.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: isitthemyogi; themagain; theusualsuspect
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1 posted on 02/24/2026 9:50:12 AM PST by simpson96
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To: simpson96

Thirty-two years old, and she acts like a middle-schooler.


2 posted on 02/24/2026 9:50:47 AM PST by simpson96
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To: simpson96

She is an acholic, I am guessing a fairly extreme one at that and likely suffers from alcohol dementia.


3 posted on 02/24/2026 9:53:02 AM PST by Skwor
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To: simpson96

So who hasn’t dreamed of doing just this?


4 posted on 02/24/2026 9:54:36 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait.)
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To: simpson96

Not Guilty!


5 posted on 02/24/2026 9:54:55 AM PST by desertsolitaire (I believ e)
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To: simpson96

Sunrise, figures.


6 posted on 02/24/2026 9:56:11 AM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: All

So, is she like available? Asking for a friend.


7 posted on 02/24/2026 9:59:12 AM PST by BipolarBob (Homer: A doughnut in each hand is a balanced diet.)
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To: simpson96

“I’m just a mom” is also a favorite refrain of thugs impeding ICE officers. One should have to have a license to be able to use that phrase. I don’t think this one could pass the test to get the license


8 posted on 02/24/2026 10:01:57 AM PST by j.havenfarm (25 years on Free Republic, 12/10/25! More than 12,750 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: simpson96

“I’m just a wine mom,” she added later on.


9 posted on 02/24/2026 10:03:45 AM PST by HYPOCRACY (Wake up, smell the cat food in your bank account. )
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To: simpson96

Get drunk and leave your kids alone in a risky situation. It has happened before and it will happen again. Alcoholics who are actively drinking are going to continue to have kids and put them at risk. In the old days, she would have been driving drunk with the kids in the car.


10 posted on 02/24/2026 10:07:13 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: simpson96

The dads couldn’t be reached for comment.


11 posted on 02/24/2026 10:08:10 AM PST by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911/June 14, 1944)
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To: simpson96

Can we have, as a society, a serious discussion about enforced sterilization?


12 posted on 02/24/2026 10:13:04 AM PST by larrytown (I will not be rage-baited.)
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To: simpson96

Broward County -yep.


13 posted on 02/24/2026 10:15:41 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: simpson96

During the encounter, the officer asks Sabogal multiple times why she left the Uber, which she seemed unable to explain.

“I have not done anything wrong,” Sabogal said. “I have no idea what is going on. I’m sorry, I get what you, I get your job. I get your whole persona. I get it.” What you didn’t get were your kids.


14 posted on 02/24/2026 10:16:19 AM PST by kawhill (Dywedwch Wrthym + Add translation Welsh-English dictionary 'Tell Us')
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To: gibsonguy

Sunrise - yep.


15 posted on 02/24/2026 10:20:54 AM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: larrytown
Can we have, as a society, a serious discussion about enforced sterilization?

It wouldn't happen, but I can think of a whole lot of categories of people who ought to sterilized. If you cannot care for yourself or others, then no more kids for you. If you have shown yourself to be a burden to society, or to have anti-social tendencies, then no more kids for you.

We have 350 million people in this country. We don't have a shortage. We can well afford to sterilize millions of people.

16 posted on 02/24/2026 10:21:15 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: larrytown

Can we have, as a society, a serious discussion about enforced sterilization?


Who will do the enforcing?


17 posted on 02/24/2026 10:21:48 AM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: simpson96

This is bad but for any of us who are over 50, let’s have a reality check. Plenty of us had parents who drove under the influence with us in the car when we were kids. Was it right? No. Was it OK that they did it? No. But it was the reality of growing up. I don’t hate my father for doing it although I realize that he shouldn’t have. Hopefully this woman gets some help before her drinking causes real harm to her kids.


18 posted on 02/24/2026 10:29:28 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: simpson96

For the sake of those children, and also society, I hope those kids have another stable adult in their life to raise them.

I very much doubt such behavior was a random one-time event for this “mother.”


19 posted on 02/24/2026 10:39:40 AM PST by PGR88
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To: simpson96

ah yes the Casey Anthony defense.


20 posted on 02/24/2026 10:42:37 AM PST by ronniesgal ( so is it okay that I said that??? GO TRUMP GO!!!!)
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