This happened at the Starbucks on Clarendon Blvd on Thursday, 7/8. As I got out if my car I saw that a baby was left in the car parked next to mine. It is extremely hot so I remained by my car to see if a parent/caregiver would come out soon. After about 3 minutes I started dialing the police. As the phone started to ring a lady came out and got into the car and drove away. She was blond and wire a white t-shirt with jeans. The car was a silver Acura with a dent down one side. I noted the number plate if the car and regardless of whether any one responds to this posting I am going to submit the number to CPS.If you recognize the description of this car and you think this is your caregiver then please let ne know and you can confirm with the number plate that I noted down. If that was a mother then I am astounded. If you add the 3 minutes I waited plus whatever time it took for the lady to order and wait for her order, that baby could have been in the car for more time than it is safe. Please don't leave your children/charges in the car in this heat.
Thank you so much for posting that. It is unbelievable to me how somone can leave a baby in the car by itself, especially during summer.
ReplyDeletePlease forward the license plate number to the CPS.
I would like to add one thing though. DON'T LEAVE ANY CREATURE IN THE CAR, no human beings or pets. It's cruel to do so!
Will you update us on what CPS says? I saw something similar last year when I was on vacation. I took a picture of the car and license plate but the lady drove off before I could get the number for the police. I thought about calling anyway but I wasn't sure if there was anything they could have done or would have done.
ReplyDeleteIt takes 15 minutes for a baby to die in a car when it's only 75 degrees outside. Infants have poor temp regulation. Consequently their body temp increases 3-5 times faster than an adult. The greenhouse effect of a car doesn't help either! And cracking a window is irrelevant bc the rate of airflow and the infants temp increase don't cancel each other out!! So imagine it being 90 degrees and do the math! If anything get in contact with CPS so that the person involved can learn something from this.
ReplyDeleteLMAO... Ok, that wasn't funny.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I got the pic.
I will definitely use it!
I live in the DC area. It was over 100 most of the day on Thursday! My charges and I didn't even want to be in a RUNNING car that day, let alone abandoned in a parked one.
ReplyDeleteThis is simply horrible, and I'm glad you plan on forwarding the info to CPS.
MMP I sent you an email with the same picture as well as the story behind it, did you not get it?
ReplyDeleteIf you see a baby left in a car, I would say smash open the window farthest away from the baby and take the child out of the car, THEN call the police!!! In situations like this, SECONDS count and you could be saving the child's life!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kidsandcars.org/legislation.html
ReplyDeleteJust found a link with state laws concerning leaving kids in cars. Looks like DC doesn't have any specific laws on the books about leaving kids in cars so I wonder if there is anything cps can do. Heck in my state you're allowed to leave a child in a car for up to 5 min for a kid younger than 7.
(Note I am NOT advocating leaving a child in the car I'm just simply stating facts and asking questions)
TC,
ReplyDeleteI must not have received it. I occasionally joke that there is an ISYN ghost because sometimes posts show up in comments but not my e-mail and vice-versa. The other day... over 20 comments just disappeared from one of the posts... but I had them in my e-mail trash so I know they existed!
Drives me crazy!
Thanks for the info TC. And about your other thread, I was wondering who took care of the child if you were sick and the mom was in Vegas?
ReplyDeleteoh well, he got over the bug the day before I came down with it and she was already home. She ended up staying home with him and she got paid for the two days she missed but couldn't pay me. I only made 50 bucks a day then.
ReplyDeletetc, that sucks. I am glad you found a new family.
ReplyDeleteSilver Acura, even if the number you wrote down isn't exact the police can most likely find it. REPORT IT!!!
ReplyDeleteTC,
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a general form of negligence or child endangerment that can be pinned on her.
What do you people consider hot?
ReplyDeletePhoenix I believe last week the entire east coast had a heat wave.
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on where the people are when it comes to what's considered hot. Down here where I live (Houston) I don't consider it hot until it's either really close to 100 or the feels like temp is close to 100. My friend who lives up north considers it hot when it's in the 80s and their state starts issuing heat advisories. They simply can't handle the heat like you and I (I assume because of your name you're in Arizona)
Don't leave any child in the car by themselves ever. I don't care if it's 100 out or 5 below.
ReplyDelete@Phoenix: regardless of what "we people" consider to be hot, we have been gripped by a heat wave here in the DC metro area since the end of June. There have been precious few days in the 80s; most have been in the mid- to upper-90s. Probably not as hot as AZ in the summer, but still far hotter than usual for a DC summer.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of that, in temperatures as moderate as 75 degrees, it takes just minutes for an infant in a locked car to get hot to the point of dying. What's worse about this situation (and, btw, Clarendon is in VA, right on the DC border), is that the woman knowingly left that poor child in the car. Good job with the sighting and the subsequent action, OP!