NEW YORK (AP)  -- Authorities say a Staten Island mother faces misdemeanor charges after allegedly leaving her three children alone and hungry amid cockroaches and rat droppings.

The defendant, 29-year-old Chikenya Collier, says she went on a quick deli run while the children, ages 10, 9 and 3, were in bed. But police say she was gone over two hours, and that the 9-year-old was spotted down the block, hungrily eyeing a vending machine.

Collier says the kids had access to bread and noodles; police say they only found old meat and moldy ice cream.

She faces three counts of child endangerment.

A neighbor, Harvey Thillet, says Collier is a "lovely person" and takes good care of her children.