Octavia Kavon Pilot, 25, Minot, is accused of leaving her 5-year-old son home alone on Nov. 26.

She is charged in district court in Minot with Class C felony child neglect.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed with the court, a postal worker found the child home alone when she was delivering mail at 2:15 p.m. that day. The boy came to the door when the postal worker knocked and said he was home alone and his mother had left. The postal worker called her supervisor, who called police.

Police went to the home and the boy said his mother had made him waffles in the morning, then left to take his older sister to school. Police reached Pilot, who was at a neighbor’s residence 19 blocks away from the apartment. Pilot told police that she had left to bring the man a coat and that she had left the boy home alone because he did not want to go with her. Pilot asked police to retrieve her purse from her car before they took her to jail and the officer noticed a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car.

Pilot made an initial appearance on the charge on Nov. 27 and a preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 2.

A Class C felony child neglect charge was dismissed two years ago against Pilot. Pilot had been accused of leaving her then 3-year-old son home alone in December 2017 because she could not afford child care. The boy’s older sister, then 7, had missed school on several occasions to take care of her brother. Social Services was called when the girl told a social worker she was worried about her little brother and Pilot was then charged. The Ward County State’s Attorney’s Office then dismissed the charge against Pilot in April 2018. State’s Attorney Roza Larson said in a statement at the time that she dismissed the charge because Pilot had felt she had no choice because she was living in poverty. Larson had said Pilot complied with all of the requirements of Social Services and was receiving services to help her care for the children.