Mom who put kid in box atop van is in jail
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
By David BrewerTimes Staff Writer [email protected]
ALBERTVILLE - A Marshall County woman who made national news after she was arrested for having her 13-year-old daughter ride in a cardboard box atop her van began Tuesday serving five days in the City Jail here after she pleaded guilty to endangering her child.

City Judge James D. Walker sentenced Jackie Denise Knott, 37, of Albertville to 90 days but suspended 85 days and placed her on two years probation. He also fined her $500 and ordered her to attend parenting class and driver's education school and serve 40 hours of community service.

About a month ago, Albertville Police spokesman Sgt. Jamie Smith said the department radio dispatcher received a call of a minivan traveling on U.S. 431 with a large cardboard box on top with a child inside.

Officers stopped the van on 431 and asked Knott why the child was riding atop her vehicle.

"The box was too big to go inside the van, and she would be able to hold it down if she was inside the box," Smith said the woman told police.

After all, she had the box secured to the van with a clothes hanger, he said she also told the officers.

Knott's daughter, Haley, later told a TV reporter that they were taking the box to church where she would be sleeping in it as a part of an event to raise money and awareness for the homeless.

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