Kid left in car?

[kyratshooter]

Big excitement at Harbor Freight this AM. I looked out the window and the lot was filled with EMS and LE.

It seems some dufus had left his 2 year old in the car seat while he went in to shop.

This was not a meth-head furball but a middle class looking man in his forties whearing the standard "Gap uniform" of cargo shorts, golf shirt and white Rebocks with ankle socks.

He had been in the store for at least 1/2 hour because the police responded to a citizen call, got EMS on the scene and poped the car door while they called the announcement on the PA system.

While the EMS was checking the red faced and sweating kid out the LE was tearing him an new A-hole and writing a ticket. The guy smarted off at them so they called CPS!

The family will now have to go to court and CPS will decide if they want to press negligence charges.

I got all this info from the EMS guys who were rolling on the ground behind the truck. It seems that telling the police that leaving a kid in the car on the 90+ degree day is "none of their business" is the wrong thing to do!

[crashdive123]

I'm surprised they didn't arrest him on the spot for child endangerment.

[Sarge47]

I would make sure that his wife knows what he did! I'm glad the idiot mouthed off! That really nailed his coffin down tight! Makes you want to bring back public flogging! :chair: :cool2:

[hunter63]

They do arrest you around here, way too many needless deaths, because of stupid people.
Heck, they even go after people that leave dogs in the hot car.........
Glad the bass whole got busted..............Dumas

[BENESSE]

Seems like any moron can have a kid and does. Don't have to pass a test, don't need a permit.

[Winnie]

Thank goodness someone noticed the poor wee mite. Doesn't bear thinking about haw this could have turned out.

[nell67]

They do arrest you around here, way too many needless deaths, because of stupid people.
Heck, they even go after people that leave dogs in the hot car.........
Glad the bass whole got busted..............Dumas

They do here too,and there have been at least 8 arrests in Louisville this year for the same thing,people are idiots,poor kids

[Winter]

I waited in car alot when I was a kid. I remember joking with my brothers about how much we were sweating.

This is a "modern" crime. I don't care to explain that.

[kyratshooter]

Last child death from heatstroke in a car we had around here was, believe it or not, an assistant principal of a middle school!

She forgot to drop it off at day care because Dad usually did that run. She did not remember the child until almost noon when the day care called. The child was dead when found.

It caused quite a stirr because she did NOT go to jail. Her husband was a politician and it was obvious she was getting preferentual treatment because they had just sent a teen mom up the river for the same thing. She pled out and got probation. She did lose her job due to not being able to hold her position with a child endangerment charge on her record.

The man this AM may be in more hot water than he can handle. If it had been me I would be looking at the legal system and a whole family full of peed off people. Can we say divorce with no visitation rights?

[BENESSE]

I waited in car alot when I was a kid. I remember joking with my brothers about how much we were sweating.

This is a "modern" crime. I don't care to explain that.

I waited in a car a lot too; when I was 7 and older, with rolled down windows and no more than 10 minutes while a grown-up ran in to get something quick, not "shop".
Sometimes it's OK, and sometimes it's not. A parent should know the difference and always err on the side of caution. JMO.

[canid]

I agree that a short wait in the car for a quick stop is trivial, but being the kind of shopper for whom a quick step in a store for a single item can turn into a protracted endeavor often, i won't be leaving any children in a car during warm or very cold weather at all.

on a side note; back in juneau my mother left my older sister and i in the car while she popped into that market just on the douglas side of the bridge (can't reember what it was called). she left the engine running so the heater would run. being very young, and curious about how everything worked, i climbed up into the drivers seat - hoping to figure out how driving a car worked - and started playing around the all the fascinating buttons, levers and wheels. i got the car into neutral and it started rolling backward toward a rough drop and a swim in the channel.

a lady entering the store noticed in time to hop into the car and set the e-brake just as my mother got out, looking terrified.

so reember; cold days, running engines, exhaust and hills can be just as dangerous as a sunny day.

[NightShade]

I would never run in with my kids in the car... But I remember sitting in the car for a quick run in, So I don't see a huge problem with a quick run in... 2-5 minutes top. Something like this is sad and stupid on the parent's part. Thank goodness there was a concerned citizen around to speak up, tragedies have happened in very similar situations.

[LowKey]

I did my share of waiting in a hot car as a kid too, but like Benesse said, at least 6 or 7 years old and with the windows down.
Sadly, today you can't leave a 6 or 7 year old kid unattended anywhere anymore for fear of his being snatched. Which is also an increasing "modern" crime.

[angelhelpreiki]

When my first child was born, I took him with me to the food store for a quick trip. As I perused some fruit in the produce aisle, someone walked up to me and openly offered me $2k for him ON THE SPOT. I saw no one else in the immediate area and the man vanished after seeing the look on my face. The store was unusually empty that afternoon, and the cashiers noticed nothing. I was unable to recall enough visual info about the man to confidently ID him. Cell phones existed, but, like computer terminals, only for the very wealthy. My son was in the child seat in the shopping cart and I had let go of the cart to use both hands to fill a plastic bag with fruit.

After that outrageous and horrifying offer, I never took my eyes off my son without leaving one hand grasping his ankle or arm.

Every time I bought gas and had to pay by going to the counter (this was before "pay at the pump"), I took my child with me. No way was I leaving him sign unseen. If I had it all to do over again but in the current time frame, I'd have a picture of that man and he'd be serving time.

[BENESSE]

Can't imagine why ANYone would want to take a chance when it comes to safety of their children. Once something bad happens, you can never un-do it. You can't make it better, you can't forget about it.
Better to be overprotective than regret not having done the right thing.

btw. angelhelpreiki, I can only imagine how sobering and disturbing really, your experience was.

[LowKey]

Over-protective goes a little to far too sometimes also.

[BENESSE]

Over-protective goes a little to far too sometimes also.

Maybe.
But the consequences of "overprotective" and "clueless" don't even begin to compare. What are you prepared to live with?

[LowKey]

I don't know what it's like these days but even when I was a kid my best friend's mom was afraid to take him to a hospital emergency room. The kid was a clutz. He would trip up our front porch stairs on a daily basis, crash his bike into stone walls or trees, take spills off a skateboard that would kill ordinary human beings, I once saw him barrel head first through a the glass of a porch door (he both slipped and missed the handle), take a roll across the porch, get up, brush himself off and proceed to get told off by his mom. Though the day she had to take him for stitches when he cut his hand with a jackknife, they took her aside and asked where he got all those other bruises and scrapes...

I don't have kids so I'm not qualified to judge. But even with the threats all around them, there is no need to coddle them and wrap them in cotton batting. I was always told as a kid that a fall off a swing, a scraped knee from a bicycle wipeout, or a bloody nose from a football built character. Cry if you gotta, man up when you can. I have no reason to think otherwise.
Kids need to learn it's ok to get hurt.

[canid]

it's ok to get hurt, and to learn from it but the problem with some of these child protection issues is children dying. lets revisit that one again: dead children. you don't learn lessons from dead.

[Trabitha]

There is a huge difference in leaving a 7+ year old in the car for a very short run in vs. a 2 year old, strapped into a car seat for 30+ min. To be in an uproar over that is not 'overprotective'. If I must go to a liquor store, I feel odd bringing my son in with me. When he was little, I would leave him at home with his father if I needed to go in. Now that he's older, (12) I will leave him for a short run in. If it's cold or hot, the heat or air is left on so he doesn't freeze or get too hot. Even at this age I would never leave him in the car for long periods, like my mother used to do. We no longer live in the same WORLD as we lived in back then. Now we have many more worries.

Not trying to be offensive...but the "well I did it when I was a kid" excuse only goes so far. The world has changed. It's no longer as innocent as it once was. Protecting your child is not coddling. It's protecting your child.

Very well put, Canid.

[Rick]

My wife left me in a locked car once. If the top hadn't been down I would have been a goner for sure.

[BENESSE]

My wife left me in a locked car once.

And who could blame her? A gal can only hope.

[kyratshooter]

Did she pay up the insurance and leave the keys in the ignition too?

[Rick]

Keys in the ignition?! Dang it! I could have held on to those and made her let me out.

[woodsman86]

I can remember waiting in the car as a kid. Our van had a remote start that ran for 20min. It would turn off if you hit the brake pedal, and then it got interesting.