VAN NUYS : Mother Accused of Child Abandonment

A woman who allegedly abandoned her 18-month-old daughter in a discount store was charged Tuesday with two felony counts of child abandonment. She is scheduled to be arraigned today in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Hang Tran, 31, of Reseda is accused of leaving the toddler, Trinh Tran, at the Target store in the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills. She was arrested at her home Sunday after police tracked her down from documents found with the abandoned child.

On Tuesday, Trinh remained in the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services, and her mother was held in County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Police say they don’t know why Tran, whom they had not been able to interview by Tuesday because she doesn’t speak English, left the youngster at the store. Trinh was found in a shopping cart by shoppers in the store’s hardware department. A diaper bag containing bottles filled with baby formula and the business cards of two doctors were in the cart with her, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Leonard J. Shaffer.

“The police contacted the doctors and got information from both indicating who the child was and where the parents were,” Shaffer said.

Based on that information, Los Angeles police officers went to Tran’s home Sunday morning. From there, a relative drove to a Baptist church, where Tran was attending services, and brought her back to the authorities.

If convicted, Tran could face a maximum sentence of three years in state prison.

She has one other child, a 5-month-old girl.