While shopping at Target, a 37-year-old Arizona mother left her baby in a hot car in the store’s parking lot. The temperature that day was 102 degrees Fahrenheit, and the child was allegedly left unattended for around 30 minutes.
Bodycam footage recorded 37-year-old Stacey Holly telling police that she “forgot,” and that she’s “not a neglectful mom.”
Holly said she had been on the phone when she and her six-year-old daughter left the car and headed into the Goodyear, Arizona Target. She and her little girl first visited Starbucks, and then they headed to the food market.
That’s when it hit her. She’d left her 5-month-old baby in the hot car, with no air conditioning.
“I honestly don’t know how it happened. I’m freaking out. I’m sorry,” the child’s mother told police. “I just don’t know how it happened, how do you forget your baby?”
Not only did Holly forget, apparently her sister did, too. The baby’s aunt was there during the incident and was actually the one who called 911.
She, too, told police they’d forgotten they had a baby with them. “We didn’t do it on purpose,” the children’s aunt cried, “obviously we just forgot that we had a baby with us.”
Police discovered the infant with a flushed face and sweat, though its body temperature was normal. One officer said the child was lucky to be alive. Another speculated about how long the child had been left there. He didn’t believe it could have been as long as 30 minutes.
The child was quickly rushed to the hospital, and Holly was taken in for questioning.
“I hate to be the [expletive], but I’m charging,” one officer is heard saying. “There’s no excuse for that, man.”
Though the child survived the incident, the mother was not let off the hook. Police charged Holly with one count of neglect and one count of child endangerment.
Even in cooler weather, a vehicle parked in the hot sun can quickly rise to dangerous, life-threatening temperatures. With an outside temperature of 95 degrees, the air temperature in a parked car can reach 129 within 30 minutes. Most charts don’t even show external temperatures in excess of this.
This is why it’s so important to never leave children or pets in a hot car. Holly and her child were lucky the incident didn’t turn deadly.
