Child Asks OKC Walmart Worker For Help For Intoxicated Mom, Police Say

Police say a 7-year-old boy walked into an Oklahoma City Walmart Neighborhood Market looking for help when his mother passed out in the parking lot.

Just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, the boy went into the store at N.W. 23rd Street and Penn. He told a worker his mother was sitting in the car and wouldn't wake up. He told the worker his mother had been acting strangely that evening, but she insisted on driving him to get ice cream. The boy said while they were sitting in the car, his mother fell asleep, putting her face in the ice cream.

The employee went out to the parking lot and found 34-year-old Jennifer Zimmerman asleep behind the wheel of a PT Cruiser. A worker knocked on the window several times, but couldn't wake Zimmerman. The worker eventually opened the car door and shook the woman awake. The worker then helped Zimmerman walk into the store, and called police.

The officer noted in his police report that when he arrived, Zimmerman was sitting on a bench, swaying and slurring her speech. He said as he spoke to her, she could barely keep her eyes open. She told police repeatedly that she "had to go" to Walmart to get some medicine.

Zimmerman told the officer she had taken Xanax and Lortab that day. She said she also had a prescription for Soma, but it was unclear if she'd taken the muscle relaxer that day.

Police called the boy's grandmother to pick him up. Zimmerman was then arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County jail on complaints child endangerment, public intoxication and public drunk. She also had an outstanding warrant in Oklahoma County for failure to appear.