‘What were you thinking?’ CPS worker talks about stopping mom accused of driving with kids on top of her vehicle

HOUSTON — A woman was arrested for allegedly driving with her kids on the roof of her car for at least four miles. That mother, identified as Yenina Kesia Gonon Conde, is now facing charges of child endangerment. 

The CPS worker who saw it and tried to put a stop to it is now talking about it.

That witness, Nicole Duncan, said she was driving when she saw the three kids sitting on the roof of the car with their feet dangling through the sunroof. Duncan said Conde was driving over 40 miles an hour. 

It was back on April 23 that Duncan was leaving work. She pulled out of the parking lot and saw something that made her heart stop.

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“And I could see somebody hanging on top of the car,” Duncan said. 

She sped up, hoping she was wrong, but as she got closer, her fears were confirmed.

“I saw somebody lean over as they were turning because the car didn’t stop,” Duncan said. 

Duncan said she tried to get Conde to pull over

“I think I caught up with them like maybe a half a mile up,” Duncan said. “And I started honking and that’s when she slowed down a little bit, enough for me to get on side of her and try to tell her to pull over.”

Conde reportedly kept going, so Duncan called police and followed behind.

“I was doing like 40 behind her and so she kept going,” she said.

Duncan said Conde drove for about four miles, finally pulling into a Fiesta parking lot on 90 and South Post Oak Road. 

Duncan confronted her. 

“I started asking, like ‘What were you thinking?’ Like, ‘What happened?’  and she was like, ‘I didn’t. The kids wanted to get up there and I didn’t see anything wrong with it,’” Duncan recalled. 

Duncan was stunned and not just as a parent. She’s also a Child Protective Service worker. She had just left the CPS office when she saw this.

“As a parent, your job is to make sure that your kids are safe and you know, even if your kid thought that it was OK as a parent, you’re supposed to have more protective capacities than that,” Duncan said. “You’re supposed to say no.”

Police arrested Conde. The 44-year-old woman was charged with three counts of child endangerment.

Duncan says she hopes the mother and others learn from this.

“I wasn’t acting as a CPS worker,” Duncan said. “I was acting as a concerned person.”

She hopes others will do the same when it comes to children and people who can’t protect themselves.

“It’s our job to step in and act,” she said. 

Duncan is not assigned to this case. Another worker is, according to CPS. CPS also tells us that the children are staying with family.