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A Boy Went for a Walk. His Mom Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct.’
Body cam footage of Brittany Patterson’s arrest. (via Fannin County Sheriff’s Department)

A Boy Went for a Walk. His Mom Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct.’

Brittany Patterson was hauled to jail because her 10-year-old son wandered off. She says her case is a cautionary tale for all parents.

At about 6:30 p.m. on October 30, two police SUVs pulled up to the home of Brittany Patterson in rural Fannin County, Georgia. The 41-year-old realtor and mother of four was on the phone when she heard a knock on her door.

Seeing two officers outside, Patterson opened the door and held up her forefinger, asking for a minute to wrap up her call. 

“Nope, not one second,” Officer Kaylee Robertson insisted. “I need you to come out here.”

Video footage captured by a police body cam attached to the other officer showed Patterson—in a purple fleece pullover and blue yoga pants—stepping outside. After establishing that Patterson’s father was at home with her children, Officer Robertson told her: “Okay, turn around for me.” 

“Why?” asked Patterson, furrowing her brow.

“Because you’re under arrest,” the officer replied.

Then the two officers turned Patterson around, pushed her sleeves above her wrists, and handcuffed her behind her back, as her 10-year-old son Soren watched from inside the house. Afterward, Patterson was hauled to jail, forced to strip in front of a female officer, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and locked up.

Her crime? 

“Reckless endangerment,” she was told.

Watch the body cam footage of Patterson’s arrest:

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