GA mother arrested after child walks less than a mile from their home

FANNIN COUNTY, Ga. — A mother was charged after deputies said her child walked less than a mile to the store from their north Georgia home.

On Oct. 30, Fannin County deputies were called to the area of Mineral Bluff Highway and Georgia 60 regarding a child in the road.

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A witness told deputies they saw a young boy walking down the road and into the Dollar General. According to authorities, when the witness asked the boy if he was OK, he said “yes.” She asked if he needed help, he said “no.”

She asked where his parents were and what his mother’s name was and he told her she worked at the post office and her name was Brittany Patterson,41. She asked if he needed help again and he said “never mind” and he then ran behind a fire station.

Deputies said they searched the area for the child and found him on Railroad Avenue, a little over a mile from his home.

According to the report, deputies said the child seemed to be confused as to what was going and when asked where he lived, he pointed in the direction of Hwy. 60. Deputies asked for his mother’s name and number but were only able to give her number.

Fannin County officials spoke with Patterson over the phone. When they told her that her son was out on Railroad Avenue, deputies said “Patterson seemed very unsurprised or concerned with this information.”

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The report states that Patterson told deputies she was in Ellijay with one of her other children for an appointment. She told deputies that her son was supposed to go with her to the appointment and she waited in the car for him for five minutes and he never came to get in the car. Patterson told deputies she went in the house and he wasn’t in the house and “couldn’t find him anywhere,” so she left because she did not know if he was in the woods or where he was and she was running late for her other child’s appointment.

In the report, Patterson said, her son is “very defiant” and “doesn’t listen to her” and said she was at her “wit’s end” with dealing with him.

When deputies asked Patterson why she didn’t call the sheriff’s office to let them know her child was missing, she responded that “she didn’t know to do that if she just wasn’t sure where he was.”

Deputies said an hour had passed since her son had been missing. Deputies later arrived at Patterson’s home. She was arrested and charged with reckless conduct.

The Division of Family and Children Services was also contacted.

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A GoFundMe created by the National Associations of Parents, Inc. is raising money for the family with the case. ParentsUSA says they will defend Patterson against the criminal charge and push back against DFCS’s efforts to impose a “safety plan.”

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