Florida Mom Arrested After Kids Found 'Drenched in Sweat' in Trunk of Hot Car as She Was Shopping By Chris Spargo

A Florida mother is charged with multiple counts of child neglect after her children were discovered unattended in a hot car.

Ciera Washington, 29, is accused of leaving her three young children behind on Sept. 14 while she and a friend went shopping at a Walmart in Sunrise, a city located approximately 10 miles west of Fort Lauderdale.

The children were spotted by a passerby who heard a “faint” knocking from inside the trunk of the car as they walked by at approximately 3:30 p.m., according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.

“When he looked inside the back seat of the vehicle, he noticed two empty car seats, and a child’s foot sticking out of the opening of the back seat that led to the trunk of the vehicle,” the complaint states.

That man and another eyewitness then gained access to the car and found the three children in the trunk of the vehicle, which the complaint alleges was turned off with all the windows rolled up.

The children were “drenched in sweat and hot” and the two youngest “had full diapers and feces on their legs,” the complaint states.

Once the children had been removed and law enforcement called, the passerby took the oldest child into the store in order to locate her mother.

Officers with the Sunrise Police Department arrived on the scene soon after and, after reviewing surveillance footage, alleged that Washington had been in the store for 39 minutes while her children were in the vehicle.

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The complaint states that Washington told officers she had left her oldest child in the car with the keys in the ignition and the air conditioner on while she ran inside to purchase household products with a friend.

The passerby also told police that the oldest child did have the car keys with her in the car.

Washington allegedly admitted to making a mistake while speaking with the officers, and said that she would have been quicker had there not been such long lines inside the store, per the affidavit.

She was booked into Broward County Jail on three charges of child neglect without causing great bodily harm on that same day but has since posted bail and been released, a spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office tells PEOPLE.