Woman accused of stealing car with children inside arrested; mother also arrested

DENHAM SPRINGS – A Thibodeaux woman accused of stealing a car with two children inside has been arrested, Denham Springs police said.

Jennifer Gullick, 40, was arrested and booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center on charges of theft of a motor vehicle and aggravated kidnapping. The children's mother, Jameka Fields, 31, was also arrested and charged with two counts of child abandonment. She was released from the scene with a misdemeanor summons, police said.

Just before midnight Monday, police were called to a Circle K on South Range Avenue near Bass Pro Boulevard after receiving a call from a mother, later identified as Fields, who had left her car with the engine running and her two children (ages 6 and 4) inside as she walked into the store.

Police said while she was at the store, her car was stolen with the children inside. She was last seen leaving the area southbound on South Range Avenue toward Vincent Road. They later found the vehicle in a ditch on Plantation Avenue with the children inside, both of whom were unharmed.

Gullick, who was identified as a suspect, was reportedly staying at a nearby hotel and was encountered walking in the area and identified through the store's surveillance cameras, police said.