Mom accused of leaving son alone

Nov. 28—An Odessa mom was arrested Wednesday night after her 9-year-old son told police his parents left him alone for nearly seven hours and he was locked outside his house without adequate clothing.

According to an Odessa Police Department report, dispatchers received a 911 call around 6:45 p.m. about a boy jumping in traffic near West 10th Street and North Kelly Avenue.

When an officer arrived, they found the boy dressed in a T-shirt and jeans despite it being dark out and 58 degrees, the report stated. The boy said his parents had left him home alone since noon and he couldn't get back inside his residence in the 900 block of North Lauderdale because he couldn't reach the latch on the 5-foot tall wooden fence to his backyard.

The officer entered the home through the backyard, but couldn't find any adults home, the report stated. The boy didn't know his parents' cell phone numbers, but the officer found one for his mom, Allison Faye Zimmerman, and called her at 7:15 p.m.

Zimmerman, 37, admitted she left the boy alone, but said she'd left at 6:30 p.m. and he'd been inside, according to the report. She told the officer she was in the process of moving and she couldn't take the boy with her because she only had a two car-seat U-haul.

The officer stated in his report the boy was "placed in imminent danger due to him being left locked out of his residence for about 1 hour close by to a not lighted roadway and without proper clothing for the temperature outside nor a call to call (his parents) or help."

Zimmerman was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a child with intent to return, a state jail felony punishable by six months to

two years in prison. She was released from the Ector County jail Thanksgiving Day after posting a $2, 500 surety bond.