Employees at a west side QuikTrip are being credited for bringing a wandering child to safety.
The little girl's mother is now behind bars on a complaint of child neglect.
Tulsa Police said the 5-year-old girl showed up over the weekend to the store at 23rd and Southwest Blvd.
QuikTrip said employees are trained to spot children in distress.
Saturday evening, Tulsa Police said employees spotted something wrong, the girl alone and wandering around the store.
QuikTrip Spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh said the training for "Safe Place" kicked in.
"This is different because it was a young child who we knew was a regular customer that was wandering around the store un supervised and we figured after asking a few questions something wasn’t quite right,” said Thornbrugh.
QuikTrip is one of the largest corporate partners for National Safe Place.
The program is designed to create a safe haven for youth runaways.
"The training works and every circumstance can be a little bit different this one was much different than what we normally do in regards to Safe Place program, we had to involve law enforcement,” said Thornbrugh.
Tulsa Police said the little girl told employees she "lived alone" and her parents were both dead.
Police said the little girl told them her back hurt and she needed to go to the doctor.
According to the arrest report, the girl's mother, Sharlotte Sandstone showed up with blood shot eyes, slurred speech and admitted to police she had been drinking.
Police said the mother called 911 to report her child missing.
According to her booking report, Sandstone is booked in the Tulsa County Jail on a complaint of child neglect and public intoxication.
"Given all the circumstances, child neglect was definitely warranted in that situation," said Corporal Mark Kraft, with the Tulsa Police Department.
QuikTrip said its employees do more than just keeping a store running.
"It’s not just a matter of wearing the red shirt and ringing somebody’s sale up you have to do a lot of different things in today’s society and they do it very very well,” said Thornbrugh.
Police said investigators are still interviewing the child and looking at injuries and determining how they were caused.
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