A Polk County father and grandmother had to be paged over a Walmart loudspeaker after leaving a three year-old child locked in the backseat of their car.
Luckily, another customer spotted the child in the back of the hot car and called for help.
Officers from the Lake Wales Police Department arrived and broke the window to the Honda Element and pulled the child to safety.
“The child was hot, sweaty, the hair matted to the face, the face red, as soon as the officer grabbed her she just wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder,” said Lt. David Black.
Investigators arrested Timothy Adams, 28, the child’s father, and Anna Adams, 57, the child’s grandmother.
The pair claim they accidentally left the child in the car, but investigators believe the surveillance video paints a different story.
Black says Anna Adams is seen looking back several times at the car as she walks up to the store, as if she’s thinking about what to do.
The child’s father also got another child out of the backseat of the car, right next to the three year old.
Police aren’t sure why they left the kid there.
“I understand that people are forgetful, but this appears to be a case not of forgetfulness but of very very poor judgment,” he said.
