Mall security, police rescue 14-month-old child in hot car
WESTLAKE, Ohio June 18 2019— Surveillance video shows a Cleveland man left his 14-month-old child in a hot car for 45 minutes at Crocker Park, police said.
Westlake police officers reviewed surveillance video from the shopping center to determine how long the 23-year-old man left the child in his car while he visited an Apple Store on Saturday afternoon, police said in a news release.
The 23-year-old man is facing misdemeanor charges of endangering children and drug abuse in the incident, according to police and court records. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance June 25.
A shopper notified a Crocker Park security guard about 12:30 p.m. to a suspicious car on the ground floor of the Main Street Garage. The security guard found the child alone in the backseat of the locked car, police said.
The temperature was approximately 70 to 75 degrees at the time, but the car’s windows were rolled up and its interior was much warmer, police said.
Westlake police officers were called to the parking garage to unlock the car. A rescue squad tended to the crying child, who was taken to a hospital for an evaluation, police said.
Officers also found a bag of marijuana in the car, police said.
Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services was notified of the incident.
The man returned with an Apple Store bag and admitted he parked the car and “completely forgot” about his child in the car.
