RTA one-year-old baby has been rescued from a hot, parked car by a woman who broke the windshield, crawled into the car and unlocked the door. The woman ignored warnings from security guards and the apprehension of onlookers.
“I don’t care if I get arrested, I’m going to save this baby,” Angela Radtke said, as quoted by local media outlet KENS 5.
Police questioned the woman after the incident, but she was freed shortly because of a Texas ‘good Samaritan’ law.
The baby had been in the car for almost 40 minutes, H-E-B (a large supermarket chain in Texas and Mexico) Surveillance footage showed. Witnesses at the scene also stated that H-E-B staff attempted to reach the infant’s parents over the PA system. However, they only returned to the car some time afterwards.
The baby was taken to the Methodist Children’s Hospital, treated for dehydration and is to be placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Woman smashes window to save tot in hot car
STORY: http://t.co/ELRIfr1VmX pic.twitter.com/fCCnAVxnkt
— WFAA (@wfaa) September 22, 2014
The baby’s father admitted that he’d forgotten that the baby was in the car. The man is now being charged with child endangerment a third-degree felony, according to KENS 5.
Each year there are dozens of cases of parents leaving their babies in cars across the US: at least 27 have so far been recorded in 2014, and 44 in 2013, according to the statistics published by Department of Meteorology and Climate Science.
Brava!!! “@wfaachannel8: Woman smashes window to save tot in hot car STORY:http://t.co/QiE45FUDyV pic.twitter.com/ZOViHIzYsm”
— Rudy Rodriguez, Jr. (@rrodrig305) September 22, 2014
At the beginning of September, Georgian Justin Ross Harris was charged with murder, two months after his toddler son Cooper was left in the sizzling summer sun in a hot car. Prosecutors believe the father intentionally left his child to die in the vehicle.
In July, an Iowa hospital CEO left her seven-month-old daughter in the minivan and rushed for meetings. The baby died. In May, a Colorado woman forgot her 13-month-old son was strapped in a baby seat while she went to work at a McDonald’s.
The total number of children who died in hot cars due to sunstroke is over 600 since 1998, and the alarming data shows that 18 percent – almost one in five cases – happened because the adults intentionally left the kids to die.
However, incidents like this can happen not only to reckless and inattentive parents: the risks of such lapses in memory increase if parents are stressed or sleep-deprived. Psychologists have even given the condition a name. Forgotten Baby Syndrome refers in particular to cases in which parents leave their kids in hot cars.
I am having a lot of trouble understanding how a person can forget their baby is in the car. Do you think these people are on drugs? Is this a new thing? I never heard of such a thing, growing up. And I never experienced it myself, either. I have been a sleep deprived mother, a stressed-out mother, but this is just stretching the limits of credulity for me. I have once or twice left the house not remembering if I left the coffeepot on, but never would I forget and leave my baby in the car. It is frightening to think that people actually do this. I have to think it is drugs — I really do. Not a “syndrome.”
I can believe it. I am guessing you are a generation or two removed from the latest bunch of twits. I suspect that all of the attention and concentration destroying BS that people grow up with now actually damages young/developing minds. There have been studies that say that human brains are being wired differently due to the changes in activities/behaviours growing up.
Just a thought.
You may be right. I’ve been asking my friends this question (is it possible to forget that your child is in the car) and they all say “no. I might leave them there a few minutes on purpose, but I’m doing it knowingly. I could not forget.” So yeah, they are the same generation I am. It is extra disturbing if this is a generational thing. That tells me we got some brain damage going on in the younger set.
Brain damage and having their faces glued to their Smart Phones…
Agree with you completely. I cannot comprehend forgetting your baby is in the car.
The brain damage is caused by the smart phones. I witnessed a discussion on twitter once that turned into an argument that could have been solved with one search on Google. They all know how to use Google but not the sense to use it to solve their argument. Thinking is a dying artform. Possibly soon a crime.
Dear EE, AMEN!!!
My daughter has forgotten where she left her mom. I never hear from her. 🙁
. . .
I shouldn’t laugh, but your comment cracks me up (my Mom use to call [all stressed and worried about me] complaining about not hearing from me “in weeks/a month”, when I had called her the day before yesterday). 😆
Pitiful…
I don’t expect any of these rocket scientists to even remember how to lock & load when the time comes.
FEMA fodder.