Police: Mother left kids alone in hotel

Published 1:42 pm Tuesday, January 24, 2012

By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A 30-year-old Alabaster woman was arrested by the Pelham Police Department on Jan. 18 and charged with two misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child after police said she left her two young children alone in a hotel room possibly for several hours.

Goldberg

Police arrested Crystal Ceraso Goldberg after she turned herself in at the Pelham Police Department a day after officers discovered her two children, one of whom was 4 years old and one who was 14 months old, in the Value Place motel off Oak Mountain Park Road.

Pelham police Lt. Davy Lott said police received a call from Goldberg’s sister at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 17 reporting the incident. Lott said Goldberg’s sister told police Goldberg called her and asked her to pick her up in Brighton, which is in Jefferson County east of Hueytown.

“She said she wasn’t going to pick her up from Brighton. When (Goldberg’s sister) asked her about her kids, she (Goldberg) told her they were at a hotel in Pelham,” Lott said. “That’s when the sister called us.”

Lott said when officers arrived at the hotel, Lott said they found the 4-year-old and the 14-month-old alone in the room.

“We don’t have any idea how long they were in there alone,” Lott said. “It was long enough for her to be in Brighton.”

Lott said custody of the two children had been handed over to another member of Goldberg’s family.