She ran out for three hours to charge her  cell phone and luckily, an on-duty security  guard came through the back door she left OPEN and found her 2 and 6-year  old children sleeping in bed.

According to The Daily Mail:

A 22-year-old mother of two from Atlanta was  arrested after police said she left her children alone in a cold, dark apartment  with only the oven on to keep them warm while she went out to charge her cell  phone.

A security guard at an apartment complex on  Confederate Court was making his rounds at around 11pm Tuesday when he noticed  the back door to a unit ajar.

He entered the apartment to investigate and  discovered Shantonia Heard’s two young children, ages six and two, lying on the  bed in a rear bedroom.

According to the official, the home had no  electricity or heat, and dog feces from the family’s pit bull puppy were  littering the floor. In the kitchen, the gas oven was left on with the door  open.

The guard called police and told them that  the kids were on their own for ‘a couple of hours’ before officers arrived on  the scene.

Paramedics who were called to the apartment  complex examined the kids and determined that both were unharmed and in good  health.

An hour later, the children’s mother returned  home to be greeted by investigators who were still at the apartment. Heard told  police that she stepped out to charge her cell phone at a cousin’s nearby home,  Fox 2 Now reported
The 22-year-old  mother was arrested and charged with cruelty to children, but during a hearing  on Wednesday, her charge was downgraded to a misdemeanor reckless conduct, and  she was granted a $5,000 signature bond, according to Atlanta Journal  Constitution.

Her two kids were taken into the custody of  Division of Family and Children Services. The family dog was placed with Fulton  County Animal Control, where it will remain until Heard is released from  jail.

Heard’s neighbors were outraged to hear about  the young mother’s alleged actions.

‘You’re supposed to know better,’ Marquita  Crudup, who lives with her six-year-old son in the apartment above Heard, told  WXIA-TV. ‘I would be worried about the house burning down…. I just don’t  understand.’

Heard’s family say this is all a  misunderstand. One of her cousins told 11Alive that the 22-year-old was only  gone a few minutes and did not want to wake the  children.