Mom flees from police with toddler in car, crashes

NEW HUDSON, Mich. – How many times have you seen someone park in the fire lane at a store so they could run in real quick?

Just about every parent knows that frustration of needing to run into the store for one thing with a child in tow. Well, this woman left the kid strapped in a running car. Worse, she didn't have her license and was desperate to avoid getting a ticket.

Unfortunately , this time a sheriff's deputy was Johnny-on-the-spot.

Inside the car he found a toddler and when the mother returned things escalated.

When Michelle Miller emerges from this Walmart in New Hudson last Wednesday with some orange juice in her hands she found an Oakland County Sheriff's deputy waiting by her Toyota in the fire lane, with her two-year old in the backseat.

"You aren't saving any time by parking in the fire lane and then another bad decision by leaving the car running with the doors unlocked," said Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe.

Miller, who's 22 and has never been issued a driver's license, becomes distraught and begs the deputy not to write her a ticket. A few moments later, while he's running her information, she starts running.

The chase hits speeds of 80 miles an hour before the deputy backed off for safety concerns.

Miller eventually crashed the car here into a fence at the corner of South Hill and Pontiac Trail.

"She went right through the t-intersection and goes right into the ditch," said McCabe.

Miller tried running again-- on foot-- but police eventually found her hiding behind a tree with her baby in her arms.

"When we interviewed her, she said she thought her baby was going to be taken away from her permanently and she panicked," said McCabe. "Luckily she didn't hit any drivers at that intersection and luckily she and the baby weren't hurt."

Miller is looking at fleeing and eluding a felony charge and a misdemeanor child abuse charge.

The toddler was turned over to the woman's mother and as you'd expect child protective services has been called. Which is what she feared from the start and ironically, police say, that wouldn't have happened if she just didn't speed off.