Woman Breaks Window to Rescue Toddler Locked in Hot Car in Kansas
The woman who caught the rescue on camera said it was almost 100 degrees out.
— -- A woman in Kansas captured on camera the dramatic rescue of a toddler left in a locked car on a sweltering day.
Kristy Scales told ABC News that she had just come out of a store at a shopping center in Merriam, Kansas, after 4 p.m. Saturday, when she saw people running to a car, screaming for help. A baby was locked in the car alone.
"It was just scary," she said.
Sarah Oropeza told local station KCTV5 that when she saw in the child in the car after she ran out of a Famous Footwear store she manages, she banged on the window for several minutes with multiple objects before she could crack it.
“The windows were totally rolled up, all the doors were locked. She was covered in sweat,” she said, referring to the child inside.
Oropeza did not immediately return ABC News' phone calls seeking additional comment.
Merriam Police said that it was 91 degrees that day with a heat index of 101 degrees. Two adults said they had left the child in the car for only four minutes, according to a police statement.
"The child was screaming and extremely sweaty," the police statement said. "The citizen took action and broke out a window and got the child out. The child was checked out by medical personnel."
No charges have yet been filed, but the case is under review by the Johnson County District Attorney's Office, an official at the office said.
Scales recorded a woman working to break the window to get the child out of the car. In the video, you can see the window being struck repeatedly with a hard object as shoppers look on.
Scales said she wanted to help but she was just in shock.
"I just froze," she said.
The window eventually broke and the 2-year-old child was freed, police said.
"I was just scared and then the baby comes out and she is soaking in sweat, in boots, in this crazy hot weather," Scales said.
Scales said she never got a chance to speak to the woman who broke the window but everyone was emotional once the baby was freed.
"We were all crying," she said. "She was crying, the nurse [who took the baby] was crying. Everyone was crying."
DDR, the company that owns Merriam Town Center, the mall where the incident occurred, referred calls to the Merriam Police Deparment.
