Baby left in a car at the supermarket

[Pinkerbells]

Shopping in my local supermarket. I parked my car as normal, but noticed that the car next to me had the windows down. I'm not talking a little bit to let air in, I'm talking about every window being all the way down. My teenage DD said 'oops someone forgot to shut their window's'. I looked across and straight away clocked the baby seat. I said 'there's A baby on it's own'! We had a bit of a debate about it and we sat trying to work out what to do. We were probably sat there for 5 minutes, so plenty of time for the parent to have dropped off a trolley, or even go to the cash point at a push. The child was quiet still so I'm guessing it was asleep but it only looked about a year old.
In the end I took the licence plate and reported the car to customer services who immediately alerted security.
But WIBU to report this? I understand in a petrol station it is a different matter, but in a supermarket?

I don’t know what I would have done. I think I would have contacted the police.

You did a good thing. Hopefully the parent will not do this next time.

I would have. Can’t believe people still do this.

Of course not!

That's pretty crazy. Very easy to snatch a child with the windows down .

I've seen people do this at Waitrose on Anglesey. Left two 18m twin girls in the car, in summer, in just their nappies, albeit with the windows all down.

I refused to go in with my friend to get our shopping (we were staying in a cottage) and I sat on my car hood instead next to the car and waited for the owner to come out. I was there for over half an hour

Was it definitely a real baby? The lady who runs our local corner shop has a thing for those creepy reborn dolls and I've been fooled by them before.

Totally not unreasonable to report. I would have called the police and wouldn't have been able to leave until they arrived, makes me go cold thinking about someone snatching the poor thing

I'd have called the police.

Do you know what the outcome was?

So what happened after you alerted security? I know I would have hung about to see the outcome.

You were right to alert customer services. As PP said someone could have snatched the child so easily. The mother was essentially just leaving a child unattended in a public place.

How do you know it was the mother?

How do you know it was the mother?

I did the same thing a couple of years back. We parked next to a car with a tiny baby in the back no windows open nobody in sight. I waited 10 mins and nobody came so I told security (was at Asda). Security put the reg on the microphone and asked if the owner could come out. After another 10 mins nobody came so security called the police. Less than 20 mins later the police turned up and the mother had just come out with a trolley full of bags so she’d obviously done a full shop. So she would have had to have been in there at least half an hour but god knows as it was half an hour we were there but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen when we turned up so could have been a lot longer. Her excuse to the police? The baby was asleep and I didn’t want to disturb her.

I don’t know what happened after that but I hope to god it scared her into never doing it again!

It's a dumb thing to do.
DH and I came across 2 children left unattended in a car, in a car park near a shopping centre. We waited nearby for 10 mins or so, keeping an eye out for them, but were running out of time to collect our own kids from an activity. So I called the Police who said they would urgently attend.

Yanbu. Hopefully someone told the parent how utterly irresponsible they were.

No not unreasonable at all! I leave my dd 2 to pay for petrol, I also leave her in the car on the drive if she's fallen asleep whilst I do chores in the house but check on her constantly, literally every minute, with the doors locked.

I would have called the police without question.

I would call non emergency no

I probably wouldn't have done it but you should have reached through the open window and opened the car door and got the baby out and just sat with him/her in your car. Then when the parent came they would've been distraught to find the child gone. That would've taught them!

Outing, but here goes.

Long, long ago a close relative had a baby and made friends during ML with another new mother, who already had an older child and therefore seemed like a much more experienced, laid back parent than my relative. The two couples became friends.

My relative was due to go back to work PT when her child was something like 9 months old so needed to arrange childcare. Her friend offered to look after the baby. I don't think she was a registered childminder and she certainly hadn't trained as a nanny, but my relative relied on the fact that they knew and liked the family and were pretty sure that they were good parents.

Not long afterwards, my relative got home from work and was talking to her friend about how the day had gone. Friend said something about going to the supermarket during the day. 'What, with three under 3s in tow?' said my relative. 'That was brave!' 'Not really!' says friend. 'They were all asleep so I left them in the car ...' End of childcare arrangement, end of friendship.

Then when the parent came they would've been distraught to find the child gone. That would've taught them!

Would probably also have taught you too when the returning parent gave you a swift punch in the face?

Article in German, but scroll down for a chart which shows you how quickly a car will heat up inside even if it's only 20C outside.

The window being open doesn't make very much difference.

www.liliput-lounge.de/themen/warnung-vor-ueberhitzung/