WATERVILLE — A Unity woman faces child endangerment charges after police allege she left five children — including a baby and toddlers — unattended in a car parked in a city shopping plaza for more than an hour while she got her hair done at a nearby salon.

Melissa J. Bagley, 32, of 234 Hunter Road in Unity was arrested on five misdemeanor charges after police received a call at 1:21 p.m. that children had been sitting in a car in the parking lot at JFK Plaza for an hour and a half, according to Waterville Deputy Police Chief Bill Bonney.

Melissa J. Bagley

Bagley, driving a blue Chrysler minivan, left the parking lot as officers responded, but they pulled her over along Kennedy Memorial Drive.

Bagley allegedly had five children in the minivan, between the ages of 11 weeks and 3 years, Bonney said. She was babysitting three of the children and two were her children.

Police learned that Bagley had allegedly left the children in the minivan, which was still running, with the windows cracked while she went to a salon near the JFK Plaza off busy Kennedy Memorial Drive.

“A bunch of very concerning things could have happened to the children,” Bonney said. While he said sometimes people leave children in the car to run in to a convenience store for a minute, “it’s certainly not appropriate to leave five kids, 3 and under, in the car for an hour and a half while you go to the salon.”

Bonney said he was not aware of why Bagley chose to leave the children in the car.

The children were returned to family members and police notified the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Bagley was arrested on five counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all Class D misdemeanors, and taken to the Kennebec County jail in Augusta. On Wednesday afternoon she made the $1,000 unsecured bail, meaning she only had to pay a $60 commissioner’s fee.

Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239

mstamour@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @madelinestamour