Amid heightened reports of parents leaving children in hot vehicles, two small toddlers were rescued by passerby who spotted them trapped in the back seat of a black Jeep parked in a Houston, Texas shopping center.
Temperatures on Monday hovered above 90 degrees, according to Houston TV station KHOU.
Gabriel Del Valle, who witnessed the event, told KHOU that he and other people nearby could hear the kids crying and decided to use a hammer to shatter the car window and get the kids out. “I mean you would understand,” Del Valle told KHOU. “It’s real hot.”
Initial reports stated that the mother of the children, ages 3 and 5, left them in the car while she was getting a haircut. But witnesses have stepped forward to say the mother accidentally locked her keys in the car after shopping. The owner of a store also provided surveillance tape footage of the mother shopping with her children and then coming back without them, seemingly asking for help.
The police were not contacted after the incident.
“After she left people wanted to call the cops, but we said, no, she made a mistake, you’ve got to learn from your mistakes,” Del Valle said. “You don’t know the situation she’s under, you know, she could be a single mom or something,” he said.
You can watch video of the rescue above.
SOURCE: Washington Post, KHOU | VIDEO SOURCE: News Inc.
