Video shows dramatic rescue of infant left in hot car: "How do you forget your baby?"
Newly released body cam video shows the dramatic moment Arizona police officers rescued a baby left in a car in 100 degree heat. In June, Stacey Holly was arrested after forgetting her 5-month-old in a Target parking lot for nearly an hour. The infant survived – but in the past two years, at least 85 children have died after being left in hot cars.
The distraught mother repeatedly told police it was an accident and that she does not know how she left her baby in the car while she shopped with her sister and 6-year-old daughter.
"We forgot her, I don't know how we forgot her, but we just forgot her!" the 37-year-old mother said.
"I honestly don't know how it happened. I am freaking out," she added, sobbing. "I'm sorry…I just don't know how it happened, like, how do you forget your baby?"
Surveillance video shows Holly walking inside the store. Nearly an hour later, she returned to the car, realized what she had done and called 911.
"We got lucky on this one, man," one officer said. "Thirty minutes without it running. That's a long time. It's a little, little infant."
It was 100 degrees outside – but inside a hot car, temperatures can jump to 134 degrees in just 30 minutes.
"I think that these people who do it, who you see on TV, 'Oh my God, how stupid are they to leave their kids in the car,' and then it happened," Holly said.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars each year. But this year, there's already been 35 deaths. Last month in New York, 1-year-old twins Phoenix and Luna died after their father, 39-year-old Iraq war veteran Juan Rodriguez, accidentally left them in a hot car while he went to work.
Holly is heard on tape thanking the police. She called her arrest "eye-opening." She was charged with one count each of endangerment and reckless child abuse. She is pleading not guilty.
Congress is debating a law that would mandate new cars to have a reminder system for drivers to check for passengers in the back.