Parents charged after hauling infant in trailer pulled by moped during Tropical Storm Ana

A Myrtle Beach couple is charged with child neglect, according to police who say they had strapped their infant into a bicycle trailer towed behind their moped amid Tropical Storm Ana storm warnings.

Mark Andrew Cherry, 21, and Bianca Rose Allen, 18, both of Myrtle Beach, were each charged with unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person by legal custodian. They were booked into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center and each was released on a $5,000 bond.

The couple were pulled over by an S.C. Highway Patrol trooper about 6 p.m. Sunday in the 6400 block of Dick Pond Road, authorities said. They contacted Horry County police, who also responded.

When an officer asked Allen why she was pulling her 7-month-old daughter in the trailer, she said she wasn’t aware they couldn’t transport the child in it and said the baby was “buckled up in it,” according to the report.

Police noted that conditions were rainy and the area was under a weather advisory because of Tropical Storm Ana, authorities said. The officer examined the condition of the strap attaching the trailer to the moped and found that it was torn three quarters of the way through.

They told police they were coming from Taco Bell and were “just going down the road,” according to the report.

Police asked why he was towing a bicycle trailer and Cherry said he was told the trailer was also for a moped when he purchased it, authorities said.

The baby’s grandmother took the baby to her home where a Department of Social Services worker was waiting. The DSS official found the grandmother’s home to be “extremely clean” and said she had plenty of food and diapers for the infant, according to the report.

The infant has been placed in emergency protective custody with her grandmother.

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Parents charged after hauling infant in trailer pulled by moped during Tropical Storm Ana."