An Indiana couple has been charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent for leaving their two children inside a locked SUV while they went shopping at Walmart.
Lawrence police said the couple — Mirianne Pierre and Watson Joseph, both 31 — were inside the store for more than 40 minutes Monday night before a passerby saw the children and called 911, WXIN reported.
Police said one of the children was “sweating profusely from his head and neck” and the other appeared dazed when they were freed from the locked car, Law&Crime reported, citing an arrest report.
According to court records, police estimated the temperature likely topped 125 degrees by the time the children were rescued. An affidavit said that external temperatures at the time were in the mid-90s. A thermal image camera recorded the temperature inside the SUV as 101 degrees, but three of the vehicle’s four doors had been open for several minutes at the time.
Police arrived on the scene at about the same time as the parents, who were described as “confused as to what was going on,” the affidavit said.
Pierre told police she had been inside for a “little bit” and that Joseph had come in to help her carry heavy items, but surveillance video showed both parents walk into the store at about 6:27, nearly 45 minutes before emergency medical crews arrived and opened the vehicle.
The children were placed in to the custody of the Department of Children’s Services while their parents were booked into jail. They have since bonded out.
Police cautioned that parents should never leave children unattended, especially when temperatures are soaring.
“Once those doors are shut the temperatures rise really quickly. So you may feel it’s only a couple minutes, but to the person or child inside the car, that’s an eternity. It gets really hot really fast,” Indianapolis Police Sgt. Anthony Patterson told WXIN.
On Tuesday, Indiana State Police posted a message reminding parents and pet owners “of the extreme dangers of high temperatures and leaving and unattended child and/or pet in a hot vehicle.”
Three children have died in the United States so far this year after being locked in a hot car, including a 2-month-old baby last week, as CrimeOnline reported. Last year, 29 children died in hot cars.
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