LAKE CITY, Fla. — A mother is facing two charges of child neglect after police said that she repeatedly left her sons to wander alone in a Lake City neighborhood for about 12 hours at a time.
When she was arrested Monday and taken to the Columbia County Jail, Camekco Webb, 41, “bragged about just getting out of the shower, while her children were left to fend for themselves outside in the elements,” according to an arrest report from the Lake City Police Department.
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Neighbors called police about the boys wandering around the Lake City Villas apartment complex, which is near SW Sisters Welcome Road and SW Grandview Street, and told officers that this was an “ongoing issue.”
Webb’s sons, one of whom was not wearing a shirt, told police that they did not know how to get in touch with their mother but said she dropped them off so that she could go to her boyfriend’s house.
One neighbor told police she is “home all the time” and the boys destroy her flower beds. She told an officer when she asks the boys to stop, “they curse and verbally attack her,” the report said.
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Webb’s arrest report noted that “previous calls for service and reports to DCF show a pattern of Webb neglecting her children in the same fashion.”
In one previous case, a Lake City police officer said the boys were left at 8 a.m. and he took the boys to the police station, where they waited for Webb until 4 a.m. While the boys waited for their mother, each one drank about 15 cups of water and told the officer they hadn’t eaten in three days.
In that instance, the officer warned Webb “about child abandonment, neglect and abuse and both children were released to her custody,” the report said.
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On Monday, a witness tried to reach Webb by phone and said Webb’s phone went straight to voicemail every time she called.
Eventually, a family member was able to reach Webb, who said she was on her way to Lake City Villas.
While Webb was taken to jail, her sons were taken into custody by a case worker from the Florida Department of Children and Families.
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