Michigan Mom Charged After Leaving Baby In Car While Shopping
STERLING HEIGHTS (WWJ) - A Sterling Heights mother is being charged with a one count warrant for leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, after leaving her 8-month old in an unlocked car while she shopped.
The 27-year-old mom left her son strapped into a car seat in a hot, unlocked car Sunday afternoon while she went grocery shopping, according to police.
The temperature was in the mid-80 degree range but the humidity made it feel more like 88 when police arrived at the Kroger store on Canal at Schoenherr. Officers were called by a woman who saw the baby alone in the unlocked vehicle about 1:20 p.m.
"When the officer arrived, the windows were rolled up and the child was conscious but a little lethargic and sweating because it was so hot outside and inside the mini-van," said police Lt. Dale Dwojakowski.
Dwojakowski said witnesses indicated the child had been in the vehicle for 20 to 30 minutes while the mother was inside grocery shopping. She came running out of the store when she saw police, fire and EMS technicians at her vehicle.
The child was taken to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township to be hydrated and examined, he added.
The mother was not arrested on Sunday but Child Protective Services were notified and investigated.
The one count warrant for leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, is a 93 day misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days imprisonment and or a five-hundred dollar fine.
