MENTOR, Ohio (WOIO) - A Mentor mother was charged with endangering children after police said her 3-year-old and 8-year-old daughters were found outside in the bitter cold after they managed to unlock the hotel room door.

According to a news release, at around 12:25 a.m. on Thursday, Mentor officers responded to the Extended Stay America hotel at 5650 Emerald Court after a concerned resident spotted a small child alone in the parking lot, crying, and brought her inside for safety.

Police said the 3-year-old girl was only wearing a sweater in temperatures of 8 degrees with 10 MPH winds. Officers quickly put the young girl in a warm police cruiser.

Officers and hotel residents determined that the little girl had been staying at the hotel with her family.

When officers found the family’s room and contacted the mother, Laura Beitler, 36, she told them she had been asleep with her other children and was unaware that her daughter had left the room.

While speaking with officers, she discovered her 8-year-old daughter was also missing.

“I didn’t know how the baby got outside because everyone was asleep. But once I realized that my 8-year-old was also missing, I realized exactly what happened because this isn’t the first time, but the second time my 8-year-old has left with my youngest,” Beitler said.

According to the release, more officers and sheriff’s deputies, along with hotel residents, were called to the scene to assist in the search for the 8-year-old, who her mother says is autistic.

A resident found the 8-year-old, only wearing a t-shirt and sneakers, outside the nearby Hampton Inn at 5675 Emerald Court. The girl’s mother believes she was trying to get to the movie theatre. Beitler cried as she told 19 News that there is far more to this story. She is a mother of five children, three of them have been diagnosed with autism, “We are living here right now cause we were evicted by LMHA. Because of how dirty my house was, because of my depression, and everything I’m going through with the autistic children. I have no help. I have begged and begged and pleaded for the county and other people to help, and no one has stepped in to help.”

Mentor Police warmed the children in their heated cruisers, and then Mentor Fire Department medics took both young girls to TriPoint Medical Center for evaluation due to cold-weather exposure.

Officers took Beitler into custody and charged her with endangering children. She has since posted bond using the money for this week’s hotel stay.

The father took custody of the girls once he arrived on the scene. Police said the father had been away earlier due to a family emergency.

The two children are safe and back with their father and mother, after being checked out. Child Protective Services is now involved and is allowing the children to stay with their mother as long as another adult is there for supervision.