'I got fired from my job': Mom chained 13-year-old daughter to fence, then turned her phone on silent and went to watch TV so she wouldn't be bothered, cops say

Inset: Yashira Maldonado (Miami-Dade Corrections). Background: The 300 block of West 63rd Street in Hialeah, Fla., where Maldonado allegedly tied her teen daughter to a fence (Google Maps).

A 34-year-old Florida woman allegedly tied her teenage daughter to a fence outside in the Sunshine State heat for about an hour and turned her phone on silent so no one could bother her.

Yashira Maldonado is facing charges of child abuse and child neglect. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, Hialeah police responded around 10 a.m. Saturday to a disturbance in the 300 block of West 63rd Street. When cops arrived, they found the 13-year-old girl chained to the fence with no food or water and subjected to the hot Florida sun.

Surveillance footage from a neighbor showed Maldonado drop the girl off roughly an hour earlier, place a metal chain around her waist and tie it to the fence in front of the home where the defendant's mother and grandmother lived, cops said.

After allegedly tying her up, Maldonado texted her grandmother "I got fired from my job!!!!" and said the girl was outside. The grandmother noticed the victim was chained to the fence and tried to free her but couldn't.

The grandmother said she did not want to call police because she did not want to be evicted from the apartment. Police showed up not long after.

Maldonado's mother tried to reach her daughter, but to no avail.

Police freed the girl, who was not injured, and arrested her mother.

The defendant admitted to cops that she tied the girl up and said she did so for the girl's "safety" and to prevent her from leaving, the affidavit stated. She said that she left behind a backpack with diapers and wipes.

She told police she turned her phone on silent after she left so she wouldn't be bothered, per the affidavit. Maldonado went home to lie in bed and watch TV.

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"The defendant stated she knows what she did looks bad and is wrong," cops wrote.

But she said she was "overwhelmed" with taking care of the victim and needed a "break."

Cops arrested Maldonado and took her to the Miami-Dade Jail, where she has since posted a $10,000 bond. She pleaded not guilty.

Her next court date is set for Sept. 9.