Mother, 17, Abandons Four Children, Turns Herself In

The 17-year-old girl lived in Nickerson Gardens, the South Los Angeles housing project ridden with drugs and violence. Too young to vote, she nevertheless had four children--a 2-year-old girl, a 1-year-old girl and twin 3-month-old boys.

Friday evening, the girl, wearing a pink blouse, pink shorts and pink socks, pushed her children in a shopping cart three miles to a house in the 1400 block of E. 75th Street. And then she left, sheriff’s deputies said.

Turns Herself In

The young mother, whom authorities refused to identify because of her age, told deputies that she could not afford to support her family, so she left them for a man to whom she prostituted herself on Wednesday. The unidentified man had promised to pay the girl later, she told deputies, but when the unspecified sum was not forthcoming, she tracked him to the house and left her brood for him.

The girl, still clad all in pink except for black sneakers, turned herself in Saturday morning at the Firestone sheriff’s station. She was booked on a charge of child abandonment and turned over to juvenile authorities, deputies said.

Deputies would not say whether she had a record for prostitution nor disclose any details of her home life. About a dozen residents at Nickerson Gardens said they had never seen anyone matching the girl’s description.

The four children, all reported to be healthy, were placed in custody after a woman at the house on East 75th Street called authorities. The 52-year-old woman witnessed the young woman leaving the children near her doorstep.

‘They’re Doing Fine’

The two older children have been placed in foster homes, officials said.

The twins--identified as John Trevor and John Troy Doe--are at the MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte. “They’re doing fine,” spokesman Richard Hickman said. “Nothing negative to report.”