PHOENIX — A 17-month-old boy left unattended inside a hot car for at least seven hours in a north Phoenix Hooters restaurant parking lot was found dead Tuesday afternoon.
FOX 10 Phoenix reports the baby's mother had planned to drop the child off at childcare before heading to work at a restaurant near Bell Road and Interstate 17.
Instead, authorities say the mother went to work with the child still inside the car.
Click here for a video report from MyFoxPhoenix.com
Police say the mother returned to her car after work and discovered the child. People in the parking lot at the restaurant ran to help when they heard the mother scream and a passerby called 911.
Firefighters were unable to revive the child and pronounced the boy dead at 5:15 p.m.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter said, "(The boy's mother) was visibly upset. She forgot the child was in the car until she unlocked it."
Temperatures in the Phoenix area reached 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon, but inside the car the heat scorched well over the century mark.
"It makes me sick to my stomach. I don't believe it was an accident," said Michelle Fritz, 33, of Phoenix who was among a crowd of a dozen people outside the area. "I don't believe you can honestly forget you have a child in the back of your car," she told the Arizona Republic.
The baby was in a car seat in the backseat of a Honda Civic, which had very dark tinted windows. Officials believe that made him unnoticable to people going in and out of the restaurant and a car wash next door, the Republic reported.
It's unknown if the mother will face any charges in the child's death. Tranter said situations like this are handled "on a case-by-case basis."
So far, there have been no arrests.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306556,00.html
She "forgot" her baby was in the car????! I have to agree with one of the bystanders; no mother forgets about her baby or child in a car.
And a 17-month old is pretty vocal. I would think that someone passing by, although not able to see in the car, would hear him crying and screaming.
She hasn't been charged yet, but I hope she is found guilty. What do you think?
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"A 17-month-old boy died after his mother apparently forgot to drop him off at a daycare center and instead left him inside her car while she went to work. Police have now booked the mother for investigation of negligent homicide. Sgt. Joel Tranter says she was arrested after detectives learned she had allegedly told family members that she didn't want to care for her son. "
I agree with Shannon. There are plenty of people out there who would love to have children. And then there are parents who don't want to be parents. It just makes my blood boil!
And the plant worker could "forget" that she was in there? LOL!
This is a link to that article, which mentions others like this. I can't imagine what I'd feel like if I ever went through something like this, and I hope I never do.