Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
VERNAL — A Uintah County woman is accused of leaving her disabled son alone at a Vernal grocery store for nearly 30 minutes.
Zipporah Apporas, 31, was found at a gas station about a mile from the store, according to Vernal Assistant Police Chief Keith Campbell. The woman was "obviously intoxicated," he said.
Apporas, her two disabled sons and her mother went to a movie theater on Vernal's west end Saturday night. Apporas left the theater during the movie, saying she needed to change her 8-year-old son's diaper, Campbell said.
Apporas later told police she drove to the state liquor store on the east end of Vernal after leaving the theater, then headed back west to Smith's Food and Drug, 1080 W. U.S. 40, where her son went into the store, according to investigators.
Smith's employees called police 26 minutes after surveillance video showed the boy entering the store alone, Campbell said.
"He was mostly nonverbal, confused and was wearing a diaper that needed some attention," the assistant chief said.
Police were still trying to figure out who the boy was when they learned his grandmother had tracked down Apporas at a gas station about a mile away. The older woman had exited the theater with her other grandson after the movie and called a friend to pick her up when she couldn't find her daughter, Campbell said.
"When the ride arrived, they drove around the theater area," he said. "Eventually they located (Apporas) intoxicated."
Apporas resisted arrest, but was taken into custody without injury and transported to Ashley Regional Medical Center as a precaution, Campbell said. Her level of intoxication and "other medical issues" prevented officers from booking Apporas into jail, he said.
Apporas was cited for abuse of a disabled child, resisting arrest and intoxication, according to Campbell. He said the state Division of Child and Family Services took temporary custody of Apporas' children.
