US mom ditches kids for European jaunt, jailed

An Iowa mother who left her four young children alone to go on an 11-day European trip was jailed on child endangerment charges, authorities said on Friday. Erin Lee Macke, 30, travelled from Iowa to Germany on September 20 without arranging child care for her children, two aged 12 and the others 6 and 7, Johnson police said. The children also had access to a gun in the house. "The police have seen times when people have left their children to go somewhere, but to go to another country is completely different," said Janet Wilwerding, a spokeswoman for the city of 22,000.

The news attracted headlines in England, where the Daily Mail newspaper called Macke "America's worst mom," as well as comments on Macke's Facebook page. Police on September 21 discovered the children at the house, notified child protective services and then called Macke in Germany, ordering her to return. She had planned to return on Sunday. Macke was arrested Thursday on four counts of child endangerment, police said. She is also charged with one count of making a firearm available to a person under age 21, because there was an unsecured gun in the home the children knew about. The children were placed in the custody of family members, police said.