Police: Two Left Kids Alone, Went For Tattoos

INDIANAPOLIS -- A woman and her boyfriend were arrested on suspicion of leaving her three children in their apartment with no supervision so the adults could go to a tattoo parlor, police said Wednesday.

Leslie White and Jason Peterson left her baby daughter in a crib swing and then tried to confine her other children -- ages 5 and 1 -- to a room in their Southgreen Apartments home on Indianapolis' south side Tuesday night, authorities said.

In an attempt to keep the older children in the room, White nailed a sheet over a window, police said. Also, authorities said, White tried to keep a door shut by using plastic tape to tie the outside doorknob to something else outside the room.

White and Peterson then left the apartment and went to Artistic Skin Design for tattoo appointments, police said.

Back in the apartment, the 5-year-old boy eventually forced the room's door open enough so that he and his 1-year-old sister could squeeze through. Authorities said the two children walked outside and onto nearby Thompson Road, where someone noticed them and called police.

White was arrested after she returned home about 90 minutes after she left, police said. Peterson was arrested later.

White, who is pregnant, and Peterson were booked into jail on preliminary charges on criminal confinement and neglect, 6News' Rick Hightower reported.

"It's very disturbing," Indianapolis police Lt. Jeff Duhamell said. "At least the little 5-year-old was savvy enough to get out of the bedroom. We're very fortunate we're not talking about something more serious."