What would you have done...?

[Tink415]

I *think* would have waited 5 minutes then called the police if no one came out. Its common sense nowadays not to leave little kids in the car alone but everyone doesn't have common sense. And years ago it was done, just like there were no seat belts or car seats in cars.

When I first moved to CT in late 90s I read in the paper frequently about people being arrested for leaving kids in the car, even with a teen in the car. I finanlly called the police station to check on the law as I wasn't familiar with it...they said kids under 12 couldn't be left in a car without an 18 or older person in the car outside a business. My kids hated it but the law is the law.

 

[nicolemomof4cuties]

I would have waited a few minutes outside then called the police. period. While waiting I woul have taken down the license #. So many children die this way. It is pathetic. A year or two ago a lady left her 3 month old baby in the car while she went in to a strip club and got drunk in the dead of winter. The baby didn't even have a blanket- he was just wearing a sleeper. A guy saw the baby in there and convinced her that he needed to to walk her to her car ( after figuring out it was her car). She had locked the doors and they couldn't get the baby out. She was so drunk that she didn't even notice that when they got out there he got the baby out and they walked right back in the club and he had them call the police on her. Luckily, the baby lived. I just do not understand people.

 

[LaurenLC]

I would have called the police... End of story.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

I think that she did an incredibly stupid thing. I also think that it's not my place to scold strangers.

No, ifs, ands, or buts, I would have called the police immediately.

I have been known to call the police when I am on the road and pass by cars with young children that are not in car seats, booster seats or seat belts.

Somebody needs to protect these children if their parents don't.

Exactly... I see it as protecting children, which *to me* is more important than not scolding a stranger....

But as the OP did, I would give em 5min, but then tell them I was on the verge of calling the cops.....

 

[Inigo]

I would have called the police as soon as I noticed a child alone in the vehicle, with no adult around. I would have called out to any adults within 10 feet or so to see if the car belonged to them, but if it didn't, the police would be called. I would also note the license number to give to the police so that, even if she came out and left before the police arrived, the could pursue the investigation. This is incredibly stupid. I can't imagine anyone caring so little about their children they would do this. No one with any sense would live a child and go out of eyesight or inside a store with a child left in a car.

 

[dismom2]

I did leave the lot, but the way it's set up, I just made a big circle and came back around, since the lot is one way for traffic. I could actually see the car the entire time, and I was back in a parking spot when I called my sister. I was watching the car, trying to decide what I needed to do. I was just trying to make the point that a good bit of time went by.

I did write down her tag number, and if I did call the police, she would have been long gone before they got there. It was a dumb thing for her to do, and the world is full of dumb people, but the poor kids would have been the ones to pay the price if something happened. Maybe next time she'll reconsider leaving them in a car in August in Mississippi for "5 minutes"...that's all I wanted to accomplish.

If you had her license plate number, I wonder if the police would have looked up her address and made a house call if she was gone by the time they got there? Especially if you thought it might be a baby sitter or nanny---maybe the police would want to bring this incident to the attention of the real parents. Just a thought. I'm glad you at least said something to the girl.

 

[MissyDVC]

I would've walked around the car to make sure there wasn't anyone there and then called the police.

 

[ChrizJen]

I had almost this exact situation yesterday when I dropped DD off at daycare. I went to get her out of her carseat, and noticed that the car next to me was running, and that there was a toddler (probably about 18 months old) strapped into his carseat in the back seat. No adult in sight. I sat back down in the car with DD for a minute to see if a parent would come out, and they didn't. I should also mention that at the daycare there is no parking lot. You park at a 45 degree angle on the street in front of the building. I don't know if the doors were locked. I didn't try them. But this was a car running in the street in plain view of anyone passing by. But it was also withing view through the window to the front desk of the daycare. So I thought maybe the parent stepped in and asked the person at the desk to keep an eye on the car.
So I went in, checked in DD, got her settled, then looked out the window, and noticed that the car was still there with the child in the back seat unattended. I stopped back at the front desk and informed the director of the situation. But by the time I made it back out to my car, the car was gone. It was frustrating because I feel like I should have said something right away. I waited, and the "parent" (or whomever should have been with the child) got away with something that he/she shouldn't have.

I can tell you now from firsthand experience that it was more difficult a situation than I would have thought. I would normally say that I would call the police right away if I saw a child in a car unattended. But when in that situation, my first instinct was to give it a second to see if a parent come out to the car.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

considering we had the exact same thign happen here just yesterday or the day before and it was a friend of mine that called the cops about a 7 week old being left in the car, damned rite i'd call them in a heart beat.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1138348.html

No charges for mom who left baby in truck

By DAN ARSENAULT Crime Reporter
Thu. Aug 20 - 4:47 AM
Halifax RCMP are not laying any charges after a seven-week-old baby was left alone in a truck under a sweltering sun in Hubley on Tuesday.

"Social Services did their investigation and our file has concluded," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said Wednesday.

"There has to be criminal intent; there was no criminal intent."

A passerby called 911 after noticing the baby boy, who was believed to be in the truck for about 15 minutes. The truck was at a strip mall in the community, located just outside Halifax.

The baby was taken to the IWK Health Centre as a precaution and has been returned home.

The mother, who was rushing her other child to emergency dental surgery, reportedly thought the baby was home with the father.

Nova Scotia Community Services spokesman Lucas Wide would not speak about the case because doing so would violate the Children and Family Services Act, he said.

"Every referral that comes into the department is investigated and looked at thoroughly to make sure that the child is protected," he added.

 

["Got Disney"]

I also would have called 911. Not just because of the obvious but also because I would have had to wait and if she came out and I confronted her and she told me to go "F" myself and than drove away, I would have been furious with myself for not doing something more to protect the kids.

I have confronted people who drive with there 2 year olds in the front seat and back seat with no chair or belt on and also one time a woman who was driving and breast feeding . When saying something to them They have told me to shut up and mind my own business.

So now I report. If she did it once the chances are she will do it again.


Kudos for saying something and not just driving away. Who's to say before you , how many others saw it and just got into there car and drove away thinking that they just dont want to get involved

 

["Got Disney"]

considering we had the exact same thign happen here just yesterday or the day before and it was a friend of mine that called the cops about a 7 week old being left in the car, damned rite i'd call them in a heart beat.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1138348.html

No charges for mom who left baby in truck

By DAN ARSENAULT Crime Reporter
Thu. Aug 20 - 4:47 AM
Halifax RCMP are not laying any charges after a seven-week-old baby was left alone in a truck under a sweltering sun in Hubley on Tuesday.

"Social Services did their investigation and our file has concluded," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said Wednesday.

"There has to be criminal intent; there was no criminal intent."

A passerby called 911 after noticing the baby boy, who was believed to be in the truck for about 15 minutes. The truck was at a strip mall in the community, located just outside Halifax.

The baby was taken to the IWK Health Centre as a precaution and has been returned home.

The mother, who was rushing her other child to emergency dental surgery, reportedly thought the baby was home with the father.

Nova Scotia Community Services spokesman Lucas Wide would not speak about the case because doing so would violate the Children and Family Services Act, he said.

"Every referral that comes into the department is investigated and looked at thoroughly to make sure that the child is protected," he added.

How for the life of me people forget or dont even notice that they have another child in the car is beyond me.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Some people do the stupidest things sometimes! It's like the story about the kids being left alone in the hotel room in Disney when the parents went to the pool. No child that young should ever be left alone in public.

OP, I think you did the right thing, except I probably wouldn't of left the car at all.

 

[RitaZ.]

I just hope next time she won't do the same thing, because it only takes a second for something to happen.

I'm sure she has done it in the past and will probably do it again. If having children is such an inconvenience, please don't have any.

 

[EMom]

I'd have called the police immediately. I've done it in the past. If it's hot (we're in Texas) and the idiot parent has left the car off and the windows up, I tell the police that if they don't arrive ASAP, I'll break the window and get the kid out. They arrive very quickly. The parents don't need or appreciate a lecture from me because they already KNOW their behavior is irresponsible and dangerous. They have chosen to risk their child's safety and perhaps even their life. Even in lovely weather, who is to say someone might not walk by, see a precious child in the car and decide to take them? If they do, you'd better pray it's because they have longed for a child to love and not for some sicker reason.

I don't bat an eye at calling 911 on parents who leave children in the car. It probably goes back to my childhood, when I watched my mother save 3 children. Their mother had left them in the car and somehow they got the car out of gear, so it began to roll backwards (downhill) toward a busy highway. My mother was just getting out of our car and I swear, I had no idea she could move that fast. She miraculously managed to get to the driver's side, open the door, get in and put it in park/apply the brake just before it entered the highway. She gained a lot of gray hairs that day.

 

[HannaBelle]

Police: Baby spotted in parked car before his death

Driver told security guards, who looked for but couldn't find child, official says.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/20/0820infant.html?imw=Y

This is why you have to wait for someone to come...soo sad.

 

[Miz Diz]

You saying something probably didn't even phase her and she'll do it again. It doesn't seem like she really cared when you called her out on it.

I saw an Oprah episode where the mom left her kids in the car because she was making a quick run into a store and the car caught on fire. The kids could not get out of the car because they were too little. All survived, but got terrible burns. One child's scars were so bad it hurt me to look at him. Those poor kids. You just don't know what can happen in such a short period of time.

 

[maelstrom]

I would have alerted a post office employee, and if they didn't seem to care (which is quite likely, at least at my post office), I'd have called 911, took a picture with my phone of the kids left alone in the car and of the license plate, and stayed on the scene until the police arrived.

 

[SandrA9810]

A broken back window and a hefty bill to fix it might remind her to think twice before doing something like that again.

My mom used to let us sit in the car all the time when she ran in to do something. But we were also old enough to understand what was being asked. Mostly it was because my brother being handicap and needed to get everything out in order to spend 2-3 minutes inside.

But if the windows are up/just cracked, that's a 9-1-1 call the second I see it.

 

[shortbun]

I would have waited for someone to come out and get in the car in case they had been forgotten by a very harried parent. More than 10 minutes go by and I would have called the police.

 

[hulagirl87]

I had a situation like this a few years ago. I pulled into the bank parking lot and noticed that there were 2 small kids in the backseat of the car next to mine and the bigger one waved at me and smiled. There was no one in the front seat. While I was definitely concerned, it was kind of like I didn't believe what I was seeing. I went in the bank and was out in about 5 minutes. Still no adult in the car. I waited for someone to come out and when she did (older woman, I think the grandma, and she had a smaller child by the hand pulling them along saying to hurry) I said, "way to leave your kids in the car!" I was just kind of angry about it I guess and didn't know what else to say, but felt the need to say something! She said they were a handful and what could she do. Sigh....