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Whenever the temperature rises, we unfortunately hear stories of children who are left behind in hot cars, whether intentionally or sometimes accidentally, when adults forget they’re there. One passerby wasn’t about to let a toddler stay locked inside a hot car in Kansas, however, grabbing whatever she could find to bust the window open and free the child.
(KCTV.com)
Investigators say the windows were shut with no way out for a toddler who was left in the car by adults who were shopping at a cell phone store on Saturday, reports KCTV.com. The manager of a Famous Footwear nearby was ringing up a customer when one of her employees who’d already left work came running back into the store, screaming for help.
“The windows were totally rolled up, all the doors were locked. She was covered in sweat. When I looked in the back window, she was covered in sweat. She had pulled her hair back and sweat was just dripping,” the manager said of the child sitting in the car in the parking lot.
She opened her own car’s trunk to try to find something to bash the door open to get to the little girl, but nothing was working. Two men also attempted to break the window with a chair, which didn’t work either. The whole time, the shoe store manager was screaming for help. She also called 9-1-1.
She refused to give up, and finally cracked the window with a tire iron. Another woman assisted with a truck hitch, throwing it at the window.
After three minutes that she said felt like an eternity, with the child inside crying and drenched in sweat, the window finally broke and the two-year-old girl was pulled out.
A nurse on the scene gave her medical attention until an ambulance arrived, and the child was later picked up by her godmother. Her father, who was not involved in locking her in the car, said she’s doing fine now and he’s very grateful for the help of strangers.
The couple who’d brought the toddler to the parking lot later came back and claimed she was their niece, and asked the shoe store manager where she was.
“No emotion at all, whatsoever. The only question they had for police was if insurance was going to pay to cover the window that we broke,” the manager said.
Police ticketed the couple for child endangerment, while the county district attorney is considering more serious charges.
“We take these matters very seriously,” he said. “We know how hot it was in Kansas City this weekend. There really is no kind of excuse for that kind of conduct.”
Remember: Leaving a child in a hot car for even a few minutes is unsafe. Completely, 100% totally unsafe.
Woman smashes window to rescue toddler locked in hot car [KCTV.com]
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