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Mom Arrested After Allegedly Sneaking Booze into Movies via Her Kid's Sippy Cup

Getting a babysitter is probably cheaper than charges of misdemeanor reckless conduct and public intoxication.
Photo: Getty Images

It may or may not say a lot about my friends and me, but all of us have our own methods for sneaking booze into a movie theater. One of us has been known to slide entire bottles of beer into his cowboy boots. Another tucks airplane bottles into the waistband of his pants. And I have, on more than one occasion, walked in with mini cans of Sofia Brut Rosé in the hood of my sweatshirt.

I’m not advocating any of these behaviors, but they’re better options than what Kristina Gibson allegedly did last weekend. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gibson reportedly filled her 5-year-old son’s sippy cup with an alcoholic beverage and proceeded to get shitfaced while the two of them watched a matinee. By the time the credits rolled, she was so hammered that she was “unable to walk, talk or care for” her son.

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Concerned staff members at the Merchants Walk Stadium Cinemas in Marietta, Georgia, called the police and—more importantly—stopped her from getting into her car. When officers from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department arrived, they didn’t immediately arrest her; instead, she was taken to a nearby hospital.

“She was that drunk,” Sgt. Wayne Delk, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department, told the Journal-Constitution. (When one well-meaning cop tried to zip her purse, Gibson allegedly said “I will [expletive] kill you,” because she is made of good decisions.)

An officer called one of Gibson’s friends to collect her son, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. (She was “not a threat” once she got to the hospital). She hadn’t been taken into custody more than five days later, but she does have pending charges of misdemeanor reckless conduct and public intoxication to look forward to.

“We go to the movies to have a good time. But you know, that’s not the way to do it,” fellow moviegoer Joseph Ellison told WSB-TV. “The movies are a place to have a good time, but there’s different ways to do that other than ingesting substances, you know, and the fact that her child was with her.”

Earlier this summer, a different Georgia family decided that yes, drinking was the way to have a good time at the movies—even though some of the kids were underage. According to 11 Alive, Daniel Ash and Linda Whitmore-Ash were arrested at the CineBistro in Brookhaven, Georgia, after allegedly buying a pitcher of beer and sharing it with their not-yet-21-year-old daughters. (Whitmore-Ash told a theater employee that the girls were old enough to drink, but they just didn’t have their ID with them. See what happens when you try to be the cool mom?)

When management saw the couple giving beer to their kids, they went full narc and called the cops. When the officers arrived, Whitmore-Ash shouted for her daughters to “Run!,” which they did. They were caught later at a relative’s house. Both parents were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, as was their 23-year-old son.

If you’re going to try that booze-in-the-hoodie thing, get a babysitter.