Locked baby in car, woman filming

[ShantyShack]

I've changed my name for this as it's very outing.

This afternoon I managed to accidentally lock my keys in the car with my 3 month old baby. I was too far away from home to get the spares. There were paramedics already in the car park who I asked for help and they advised me to contact the fire brigade. I called them and they arrived quickly and begun to try and get into the car. My DD was also with me but she waited in my friends car so was perfectly safe. As expected a fair number of people stopped to have a look. I was very upset as the baby was screaming and I found it quite distressing. I then noticed there was a woman filming me on her phone. I raised my hands as if to say "what are you doing" and she didn't stop. My friend went over and told her to stop and the paramedics actually moved the ambulance to block her view.

AIBU to be upset that the woman was filming what was obviously a horrible situation and to wonder what she hopes to achieve from it? I'm not on Facebook but we have a number of local "Community" boards so have asked friends to look out for her post. Can I then contact admin to get them to take it down? Surely if I can be identified in the video, she needs my permission to post anything?

I have that stupid fucking 'car locks itself within 20 seconds after the driver's door shuts' bollox too. I hate it. If I want the twatting thing to lock I AM CAPABLE OF MANUALLY LOCKING IT!!!!!!!!!

I regularly come in from town, and quickly pop into the house to feed the cats, or have a wee, or say hi to DH before I get the shopping in, and when I go back to the car a MINUTE or 2 later, the car has locked itself ... grrrr.

I also have no other car key. I used to have 3, but the other 2 were on a 'spare car key key' keyring, and I put it somewhere when I sorted the house for Christmas and put the Christmas tree and decorations up, (in December 2016,) and I have not seen them since.

Luckily I have not locked the (remaining) key in the car - ever. It will probably happen one day though.

As a pp said, it seems to be a design fault, and yet I know a few people whose cars do this. Fucks me off! I wish there was a way to deactivate it!

I locked my 8mo son in the car. He was fast asleep. So I made my DH stand and watch him to make sure he wasn't in distress and then I borrowed MIL's car and drove 60 mile round trip to get the spare keys. The understanding was that if we needed to smash the window we would have but luckily for my bank account he slept for the entire 90min!

It was about 3deg outside, DH took a long time to warm up after that...

Mine locks too (it’s an Audi anyone else?) luckily I realised before I accidentally locked my baby in but now I’m extra cautious about the keys

If they’re crying every second is ages!

What an awful woman - hopefully if she does post the video on social media, any "friends" of hers will call her out on it and she'll feel as bad as she should about it.

If it's any consolation, my Mum once locked my DD in her car when she was 9 months old - the first day she was looking after her when I'd returned to work! Luckily her husband turned up with the spare key, but she said it was the longest 20 minutes of her life!

I hope you're feeling much better now it's all over; try not to give that horrid woman another thought, you're all safe and sound now.

Gobsmacked that you took up the time of our valuable ambulance and fire service rather than work this out yourself, particularly given you had a friend there with her own car

Just out of interest do you use 999 to contact the fire brigade in these circumstances? I don’t know any other way on contacting them unlike the police and medical help on 101 and 111.

@Bryjam I was waiting for someone to post something like this!

The paramedics were there anyway so I went over to ask their advice as I thought they may have been involved in similar situations before. They told me to phone 999 and get the fire brigade there. To go home and get spare keys would have been an hour round trip and there was a three month old baby screaming in the car.

The fire brigade have said that I may be contacted to make a payment and I will be more than happy to oblige. And I didn't ask the ambulance service to hang around but they wanted to help.

Thanks for being that person though. I was starting to worry that everyone was being too nice

One hour no way you did the right thing, of course!

Happy to oblige

It wouldn't be Mumsnet if someone wasn't a twat. Glad you got to use your thought out reply, it would have been wasted without me!

But seriously, I actually think you did the right thing.

Another one here who locked a child in the car with the keys. Phone was in the car as well. Luckily it was just outside my kids nursery so I went back in and used their phone to call the RAC who came very quickly. DS's key worker stood outside the car and sang to him until he fell asleep while I was inside with my other two. Luckily it was a quiet residential street so no idiots about. Most people are so kind when these things happen and then the odd person is just so very odd. Why would you film that?

I'd like to know which make of cars have these irritating, and quite frankly dangerous, options of being able to lock yourself out of the car so I don't buy one next time my car needs changing.

@LoniceraJaponica it's a Peugeot. It's ok if you open either one of the front doors but I believe if you only open any of the rear doors, it locks itself after a minute or two. I had heard it lock as I put DS in but didn't think to grab the keys.

What idiot thought that this was a good idea?
Probably someone who doesn't use a car the way most people do.

It's very frustrating but until today has never been a problem!

So sorry this happened but as pp's have said you did all the right things.

As for this women....well sadly there are some people who live vicariously through their social media. They spend their days looking for things to post to gain more likes/followers etc.

The fact they are intruding into someone's privacy or clearly testing moral boundaries just doesn't seem to register.

Look at the news footage from the Alton Towers accident were people were seriously injured as one of many examples. Round the ride you can see swathes of people filming the aftermath and trying to get footage of those trapped - absolutely no sense of thought about filming people in pain and distress as long as they get their social media share of the drama.....

People like this have a total absence of boundaries and morality.

She probably hoped to sell the video to the news if your baby had been harmed. Unfortunately for her they don't actually pay for emergency footage and can lift it from other sites.

@DeRigueurMortis it's the main reason I deactivated my Facebook account. I was so sick of seeing people being mean to each other. I'm no angel but I do like to try and get the full story before making a judgement but some people are so quick to be rude.

While it’s not nice for you that she filmed it, she doesn’t need your permission to film you in a public place, and she doesn’t need your permission to post it all over social media either.

All the more reason not to have a Peugeot, OP! I have one too and want to get rid of it!
Mine locks itself too if you've unlocked it but not opened a door. I haven't tested whether it would lock if you'd only opened the back doors. Will have to try it! (In my driveway!) Luckily my dc are older and could get themselves out.

It must have been awful seeing little ds crying inside and not being able to hold him. Hope you've had lots of cuddles now and that he's ok, and you too, of course.

Such scary things can happen when you have dc! I work in a school and this afternoon at pick up a 2 year old wandered off and wasn't found for a good 5 minutes or so. I'd seen him walk past but hadn't thought anything of it as there were still a number of people round so thought his mum had seen him. I didn't see which direction he'd gone. The panic on the mother's face was difficult to see. Luckily one of her dd's friends found him. The dd looked very upset too, bless her. Everyone went straight to find him. I couldn't imagine people standing round filming so agree with pp that the woman filming was a complete twat!!!
Sorry she did that to you. Hope you're all ok now. later I think!

I managed to lock both my children in the car last week while I was de-icing it. Didn't even know that it would lock itself.
Luckily my husband was home otherwise I would have been stuck

I saw a poor man and woman in a car park recently and the exact same thing had happened the got a brigade were already there
The last thing I would have thought to do would be to film it! They were upset enough. People are dicks OP. Don't worry yourself with it.

Also, you definitely did the right thing by calling fire brigade. Definitely the safest way to rescue such a small baby. They know what they're doing and how to keep him safe.

What a fucker. I'd have swung for her.

Hope you and baby are ok - what a stressful experience for you

My Ford locks itself too, as I found out once when I locked my keys, bag, phone and two small children inside it...

Luckily a neighbour came out and called a local garage who jimmied it open for me, but it was a horrible moment and now I’m very very tense around my car and my keys.

OP that's awful. I think i would have had a breakdown if i locked my three month in the car.