The mother was out of her car for just minutes and no more than 10 yards (9 metres) away.

But that was long and far enough to land Treffly Coyne in court after a police officer spotted her sleeping 2-year-old daughter alone in the vehicle.

Mrs Coyne had taken her two older daughters to pour £4 in coins into a Salvation Army collection box.

Minutes later, she was under arrest - the focus of both a police investigation and a probe by the state's child welfare agency.

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Now the case that has become an Internet flash point for people who either blast police for overstepping their authority or Mrs Coyne for putting a child in danger.

The 36-year-old suburban mother is preparing to go on trial tomorrow on misdemeanour charges of child endangerment and obstructing a community service officer.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to a year in jail and fined £1,250 even though child welfare workers found no credible evidence of abuse or neglect.

On December 8 Mrs Coyne decided to drive to Wal-Mart in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood so her children and a young friend could donate the coins they'd collected at her husband's office.

Even as she buckled two-year-old Phoebe into the car, the girl was asleep.

When Mrs Coyne arrived at the store, she found a spot to park in a loading zone, right behind someone tying a Christmas tree onto a car.

"It's sleeting out, it's not pleasant, I don't want to disturb her, wake her up," she said. "It was safer to leave her in the safety and warmth of an alarmed car than take her."

So Mrs Coyne switched on the emergency flashers, locked the car, activated the alarm and walked the other children to the bell ringer.

She snapped a few pictures of the girls donating money and headed back to the car. But a community service officer blocked her way.

"She was on a tirade, she was yelling at me," Mrs Coyne said. The officer, she said, didn't want to hear about how close she was, how she never set foot inside the store and was just there to let the kids donate money, or how she could always see her car.

Mrs Coyne telephoned her husband Tim, who advised her not to say anything else to police until he arrived. So she declined to talk further, refusing even to tell police her child's name.

When he pulled up, his wife already was handcuffed, sitting in a patrol car.

Crestwood Police Chief Timothy Sulikowski declined to comment about the case. But he did not dispute the contention that Mrs Coyne parked nearby or was away from her car for just a few minutes.

He did, however, suggest she put her child at risk.

"A minute or two, that's when things can happen," he said.

Talk about the case has intensified, particularly online, where bloggers are weighing in on various message boards.

Many have harsh words for the police department, calling the arrest of a mother who left her child in a locked car for a few minutes an abuse of authority.

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