Mom Arrested after Child Called 911 to Report That He and 6 Other Kids Were Left in a Hot Car

A 37-year-old mother from Maryland got arrested after one of the seven children she left in a hot car dialed 911, according to authorities.

At 1:06 pm on May 10, Charles County dispatchers received a call from one of the seven children who indicated they were inside an unattended hot car.

Cars parked in parking lot. | Source: Shutterstock.

Even though the child didn’t know their location, authorities traced their whereabouts to St. Charles Towne Center using GPS and other methods.

When the police arrived, they found the windows of the passenger car rolled up with seven children inside without the motor running.

Police helped the children, the youngest being two years old and the oldest four, out of the vehicle while Charles County Fire/EMS provided treatment on the scene.

Paramedics with stretcher and flashing lights. | Source: Shutterstock

About ten minutes after authorities arrived, the 37-year old woman, who left the children in the car, returned after having been shopping inside the mall for at least twenty minutes.

Officers then arrested the woman, who is the mother of two of the children while she babysat the others, and charged her with the confinement of children inside a motor vehicle.

Additional charges are pending while the Department of Social Services will also be assisting with the investigation.

Hot weather warning with thermometer. | Source: Shutterstock.

“It is against the law to leave a child under the age of eight unattended inside a motor vehicle if the caregiver is out of sight of the child unless a reliable person at least 13-years-old remains with the child,” the Charles County Sherrif’s Office said in a statement.

To protect the identity of the children and due to the nature of the crime, authorities will not release the name of the woman at this time. According to Maryland state law, the woman can face 30 days in jail or up to $500 in fines, or both.

Temperatures inside a parked car can quickly reach dangerous levels, and it is not safe to leave any person or animal inside a parked, closed vehicle, the Sherrif’s Office reiterated.

Sadly, the case of a Texan mother, Amanda Hawkins, showed how dangerous it could be leaving children in a locked car.

In 2017, Amanda drove to a friend’s house in Kernville, Texas, and left her two children, one and two years old respectively in her car overnight.

The following morning she found them both dead and consequently got arrested and charged with two felony counts of bodily injury or physical or mental impairment, abandoning or endangering a child causing imminent danger or death, and two counts of injury to a child.

In September last year, Amanda pleaded guilty on all the charges and got sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Similarly, a pregnant former police officer got convicted of culpable negligent manslaughter of her 3-year-old daughter in April this year.

Her daughter died in the hot car while she visited with a colleague and consequently got sentenced to 20 years in prison while she plans on giving her unborn child up for adoption.

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