Former Rare Staff
A Florida woman is facing charge of nearly being responsible for her child becoming a hot car death statistic after police said she left her child in a hot vehicle and then told police “it was hot” when she was put into the back of a police cruiser, according to a report.
Videos by Rare
Police were called to a Dollar General store in South Daytona last week for a report of a child left in a parked car.
They said they found a 5-year-old sitting in a locked Hyundai alone, in a car seat, with the front seat side window down and both rear seat passenger side windows rolled up. The rear driver’s side window was slightly open, a report said. The car was parked in direct sunlight without any shade, police said. A perfect situation for a vehicular heatstroke death and a total lapse in child safety.
Police said the boy appeared upset and was sweating profusely.
Police dashcam video captured the interaction between mother Colleen Walker, 30, officers and firefighters.
“He wasn’t in the car for two hours, it was like, 12 minutes,” Walker told police as she walked out of the store, adding her son had wanted to stay in the car while she shopped.
“Don’t get all huffy and puffy because I’m not going to feel bad for you. I don’t care,” the firefighter said.
The witness who called 911 said the child was left for about 20 minutes and that the child was crying and screaming.
The manager of the store told police Walker has been walking around the store for nearly 30 minutes.
Surveillance video showed Walker in the store for about 30 minutes with her 3-year-old daughter.
A firefighter told Walker her son was lucky to be alive.
In regards to kids in hot cars and the child deaths that result, one firefighter said, “We get cases and cases where, 10, 15 minutes the kid is dead.”
The South Daytona Fire Department checked the temperature of the vehicle, which was 107 degrees, far higher than the outside temperature.
The young child’s vitals were checked and he was OK.
Police said while she was being driven to jail, Walker told officers to put on the air conditioning because it was “too hot.”
“She was complaining that the backseat of our patrol car was too hot on her way to the jail, and asked the officer to turn the AC up,” Lt. Dan Dietrich said.
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She’s facing child neglect charges and was jailed on a $5,000 bail. Walker could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
This story was originally published June 8, 2017.
