Mother leaves her child behind to catch a flight

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A scheduling mix-up at the airport left Martine Lifleur with a choice.

Miss her flight, or get on the plane and leave her 10-year-old alone with no money or cell phone at Tampa International Airport.

She got on the plane, authorities say.

On Wednesday, the 31-year-old Brandon, Florida woman was released from jail, charged with one count of child neglect, a third-degree felony.

She was booked into the Orient Road Jail with bail set at $2,000, but a judge released her without having to post bail.

The child’s grandmother – his father’s mother – said that her son is Nate Webster, former linebacker with the Buccaneers who last season played with the Denver Broncos.

“She made a mistake,” Webster said Wednesday outside the jail, waiting for Lifleur to be released. “She realizes that. As a family we will work it out.”

It was a miscommunication between her and Lifleur, she said.

Lifleur was supposed to come by her house, and Webster was to have driven her to the airport, and watched her grandson last week, she said. But Lifleur never showed up for the ride.

Airport police arrested Lifleur on Tuesday when she got off a flight that originated in Fort Lauderdale.

The child was not overly traumatized by the experience, said Christine Osborn, a spokeswoman for the airport.

Lifleur brought her son with her to the airport on the night of Sept. 1, Osborn said. She told police she had stopped by the child’s grandparents’ home to get them to drive her to the airport, but they were not home. So, she drove herself and parked in the short-term parking garage.

She brought the child to the terminal, gave him the keys to her car and told him to wait for his grandmother.

The boy waited about 90 minutes, then walked to an information kiosk and asked whether someone could call his family. That’s when airport police were called.