Mom charged after barefoot kids found selling toys out of stroller

Two barefoot sisters found wandering the streets and selling toys out of a stroller told Osceola County deputies they were trying to help their mom save their home, records show.
An anonymous caller had notified the sheriff's office Thursday morning that the sisters had been knocking doors in the Intercession City community near the Osceola-Polk county line asking for toys.
The girls, ages 7 and 9 years old, told deputies: "We are out selling toys to help mommy stay in the house."
It was almost 10:30 a.m. Thursday and the girls had missed the 7:20 a.m. bus to school, according to sheriff's records.
Neither knew their street address but led deputies to their home about a half mile away, records show.
When deputies took them there around 11 a.m., their mom, April Emery, was asleep in bed.
"Oh. Well they should know better, it's their job to wake me up in the morning to get ready for school," Emery told deputies.
The sisters said they hadn't told their mother they missed the bus but that "mommy's roommate" had seen them in the street, records stated.

The doors of the home were wide open and Emery told deputies she had no idea where the girls were.
Deputies noted in their arrest report that there was running water, electricity and food in the house. And both sisters were wearing clean clothes and had "toys to keep them entertained," the report stated.
Emery was charged with child neglect and she was booked into the county jail in lieu of $1,000 bail.
Her arrest was reported to the state Department of Children and Families, which had investigated previous allegations of poor child care at the home. The sisters were turned over to their father.
Emery has a third child by another father, but that child was not mentioned in the arrest report.
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