What would you do if you saw a child alone in a car?


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Wow,

From all the, "I'll call the cops..." responses...

I guess I'll be the bad guy...

Let me start by saying, I have several family members that are cops and I live in AZ.

The "bad guy" and "older children" issues aside (those would have to be topics for other discussions)...

If I see an infant, toddler or pet, in a car that is closed (or even mostly closed) and unattended, the first thing I'll do is break out the driver side window, get them out, and then and only then, call 911.

In a hot environment, the small child or pet will be dead before 911 arrives, unless you get them out of the vehicle that very moment.

This would be the same as seeing a child drowning in a pool and saying I'll call 911 to have the paramedics get them out.

Seconds will count... and minutes will simply be too long.

Sorry for any toes I may have stepped on...

PS. My sister (one of the family cops I mentioned) is the one who said break the driver window.

Usually its not where the child or pet is sitting and it has to be repaired pretty soon, if you want to drive the car.

She says being stupid should be expensive.

Edited by DMGNUT
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As a child (early 1960's), when I was misbehaving in public, I got sent to the car. Admittedly back then windows were manual and you could have them all down. While I am sure my parents watched out the window, I never knew it and always felt safe.

Temperature, age, and are windows down, would all affect my decision, but a kid in a open car is not the end of the world some people seem to think it is.

Edited by mnn727
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In our state it is illegal to leave a child under a certain age alone in the car for more than 10 minutes (which I think is too long). Even before the law was passed I would call the police.

I agree with such laws. It seems there can be such a personal gray area on what is okay (which will vary from one person to the next) that it's best to make an official cut-off age. After that, common sense and, yes, even trusting the parents and kids to make decisions, should apply.

but a kid in a open car is not the end of the world some people seem to think it is.

I agree with this (even though I think I made some posts that made it sound as if I were against any kids being left in the car ever). When I was a kid, if we were at the grocery store and wandered off and couldn't find Mom and Dad... we headed out to the car to wait.

While I think there is a lot to be said for common sense and intuition, I hate fearmongering. In fact, I adamantly believe that the breakdown of community we see--don't trust your neighbor, don't interact with people around you (cuz you might regret it)--is part of Satan's plan.

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PS. My sister (one of the family cops I mentioned) is the one who said break the driver window.

She says being stupid should be expensive.

Yep, and I was always taught "two wrongs make a right." If the one person is being stupid, you be stupid too. :rolleyes:

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Yep, and I was always taught "two wrongs make a right." If the one person is being stupid, you be stupid too. :rolleyes:

I apologize if I'm taking your post the wrong way, but breaking one of the windows to save a child (regardless of which window you choose), doesn't fall into my definition of stupid. :)

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For me, it would definitely depend on the age of the child, as well as other factors mentioned.

When my oldest daughter was 1 and I was pregnant with #2 I took DD1 with me to the bank. I was just going to the ATM outside and it was a hot day, so I took the spare car key with me, left the car running and locked the door so no one would steal the car while I was at the ATM. I was literally about 5 feet away from the car.

The ATM took me all of 2-3 minutes, then I went back to the car and tried to unlock it with the spare key. Surprise! The key didn't work (turns out it was for a vehicle of the same make, though entirely different model, that we no longer had; they keys were almost identical). A passerby tried to help me get a coat hanger forced through the window to unlock the door. No luck. After several minutes I called 911. The police came and tried to unlock the car with his jimmy stick and he couldn't get it to work either. By this time DD#1 had been in an idling car on a very hot day for a good 15 minutes or so. She was crying and I could see through the window that she was sweating. The police officer called the fire department and they also tried unsuccessfully to jimmy the lock.

Finally, just as we were about to break a window (which if I'd been thinking clearly and not in a panic I would have done long before), one firefighter managed to force open the triangular window near the front of the door, I was able to slip my skinny (back then) arm through it and was just barely able to reach the switch for the door lock (thank goodness it was a power lock, or there would have been no switch close enough to reach).

Even with the car running, the A/C didn't work that well at idle. My poor baby was soaked in sweat, red faced and in a panic. I felt absolutely horrible. I got a literal slap on the wrist from the police and a well-learned lesson. Never again will I leave a child in a car if they are too young to get out of their seat belt and unlock the door themselves, and even if they're old enough to do that I wouldn't with a young child. My mom left me in the car alone when I was five while she carried groceries into the house and I put the car in gear and it rolled out of the driveway!

I have left my teenagers in the car alone, but they also know they can leave the car and come inside if they need to, and I've still never left them unless it's for a quick trip into a gas station or something similar. Otherwise, they come with me whether they want to or not.

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I apologize if I'm taking your post the wrong way, but breaking one of the windows to save a child (regardless of which window you choose), doesn't fall into my definition of stupid. :)

I wouldn't put the well-being of my own family at risk by stupidly committing even a misdemeanor (vandalism, trespassing), much less a felony (breaking and entering falls under the category of burglary) when I can call the police instead. In most cases, I don't think the five minutes it would take for them to arrive on scene would make the difference.

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I apologize if I'm taking your post the wrong way, but breaking one of the windows to save a child (regardless of which window you choose), doesn't fall into my definition of stupid. :)

No you appear to be taken my post correctly, if you choose the front window because of the notion, "This person did something stupid so I will make them pay by breaking the front window, when any other window would suffice." Yes, this is stupid.

Any window would suffice, excluding the window the child is next to. The point is to save the child by breaking a window. The choice to break a particular window to cause more trouble to the parent, because of this notion, "Stupid is expensive" -- just as stupid.

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Wingnut, thanks for your comments, but in AZ, during the summer, 5 minutes is 4 1/2 minutes too long. And (in Arizona), its the person who left the child who would be charged, if anyone was.

Anddenex, the "Being stupid should be expensive", is a twist on an old John Wayne quote, that many have used and modified for the sake of humor.

As the gate keeper of poor attempts at humor, I will bow to your obvious disgust at mine, and be more mindful in the future.

I would however, point out once more, that was not the point of my original post... it was that saving a child (in my opinion) was more important than someone's window.

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Anddenex, the "Being stupid should be expensive", is a twist on an old John Wayne quote, that many have used and modified for the sake of humor.

As the gate keeper of poor attempts at humor, I will bow to your obvious disgust at mine, and be more mindful in the future. I would however, point out once more, that was not the point of my original post... it was that saving a child (in my opinion) was more important than someone's window.

Forgive me, I didn't recognize any humor in the post and I am not familiar with the quote from "John Wayne." Maybe if I was familiar with John Wayne's quote I might have thought differently.

I will also bow, in hopes, to recognize humor when something is meant to be humorous, but I don't promise anything because many jokes slip by me.

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