Would you get into trouble for this?

[ECJW98]

Something that happened at my sister’s work today… they found a car with 2 young children locked inside (aged around 4-5 years old), they checked the CCTV and they had been left there for approximately 4 hours at this point with no-one coming back to check on them.

They rang the police (as you do!) and around an hour later, they still hadn’t arrived as they said they was “very busy”. The children were hysterical at this point but no-one would step in and smash the windows to get them out because they were scared about getting into trouble and having charges pressed against them.

I mean, if that was me, I would have smashed the windows and faced the consequences later on but it got me thinking - based on these circumstances and the fact that 2 young children were at risk - would someone get into trouble if they did this to rescue them?

I feel like people on the internet always say they would, but these people never happen to be at the scene at the time. We had a similar happen in my town, younger child less amount of time , in a supermarket carpark. No one smashed the window, they waited by it until the parent came back. Plastered pictures over FB of the car, plenty of comments saying if they were there they would have smashed the window, but in a busy supermarket, on a Saturday with a big crowd at this time, no one did.

No, people don't forget!

Parent relelbered their phone id bet while forgetting the kids

It's quite possible the parent forgot they were in the car when they parked if they were very quiet

No it's not. It's not possible in the slightest.

Not always - I was with DH in his car, we stopped so he could pop into the local Co-Op, after a set period of time the car auto-locks all the doors even if there's someone inside. I moved, the alarm went off and I could not open the passenger door from the inside.

Are you joking? "Forgot" their kids were in the car? Who the fuck does that for 4 hours!?

Hmmm where did I leave those very small people that can't protect themselves, who knows!?

For future reference. No need to smash a window if your by a bunch of shops.

Roll of gaffa tape, apply multiple long strips firmly to the window, top to halfway down with a 'tail' end you can hold onto at the bottom.

Once firmly applied pull firmly applying the pressure downwards to force the window down into the door.

Bob's your uncle.

If you're in a remote area, smashing might be needed. Always handy to have one of these on your keys anyway. Car window smasher

It's more than possible, there are documented cases of it happening several times a year all around the world, including children dying from it. It's a known problem that lots of organisations try to develop safeguards against.

People do it not infrequently. There have been lots of cases where a parent has forgotten to drop the child at childcare, and just gone into work on automatic pilot. As a pp said there was one where a 7-month old baby died of heatstroke in Tipperary in 2017, but there have also been others reported, and it’s not that rare. It’s a recognised phenomenon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_baby_syndrome

Wiki suggests c.38 children die annually in the US from being left in cars, for instance — more likely to happen in hotter countries. The Tipperary case I mentioned happened on the hottest day of the year, but for obvious reasons fatalities from this are far less common in Ireland.

Ridiculous.

Yes I’d smash it after 4 hours. Poor kids must have been terrified

I'd smash them. IF it ended up at court I don't see someone being convicted. A broken window over two lives?

I'm restraint trained (work with sen children) and we are always told a broken arm etc is better than a child getting run over or falling out of a window etc

I want to try this tape trick now! Might be useful one day

Jesus, the apologist excuse of the year goes to you!!

The parents 'might have forgot' their kids for over 4 hours??? You think??? 🤔

I've read some seriously pathetic apologists for mens behaviour on here before, but this one is the absolute winner!! Who 'forgets' their two young children for what (by the time the police got there!!) was over 5 hours!! Jesus Christ!! 🤦‍♀️

Or perhaps the parent/s who left them in the first place, or the office workers who stood by and did nothing for a couple of hours? You know there were several 'blame steps' involved here, right?

It isn’t that unusual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_baby_syndrome

It's a well documented issue and happens to men and women. I've heard adverts on the radio even this year saying "remember to check the back seats for kids before you leave the car" so it's obviously a big enough deal for the government to pay for advertising. And in fact my own car when I turn it off flashes a reminder up on the dashboard to "check rear seats".

What I find surprising is that people debated on whether to smash the window. I'd have done it without hesitation

@twentysevendresses No need to name call and be quite so rude.

It's a phenomenon that happens Forgotten Baby Syndrome there are many cases where the children are asleep in the back of the car and parent drives on to work etc on autopilot.

Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't happen!

Yes you can break a window in this situation.

In the summer do not hesitate, extra minutes in a hot car can kill. Children or dogs should be rescued immediately.

In winter weather I would probably hesitate too, but if I knew they had been there 4 hours I would like to think I would break the window to let them out. How sad for them.

Those forgotten baby syndrome cases where the poor baby died haunt me. I can totally see how it could happen. If I remember rightly it tends to happen when there is a change to a usual routine. Tragic.
I hope the children were ok. I would like to think I would have broken the window especially after 4 hours!! That’s ages.

Why did nobody call the fire brigade?

They'd have smashed the window. My foster Dad has done it a lot, it’s a more frequent occurrence than you’d expect.

”No jury would convict” may be true; but you wouldn’t usually have a jury trial for criminal damage; which I expect would be the crime here.

Yes, you'd still be in trouble for smashing the windows and potentially injuring the children (flying glass), but I imagine the police would find the circumstances understandable.

I'm surprised no one called a local garage and asked a mechanic to break into the car, or the fire brigade.

A complaint needs to go in to the Police. Children were immediately in danger and attendance should have been instant.

Yo wouldn't get in trouble for this (ex police officer).

Smashing a car window would be an offence of criminal damage. There is an in-built defence of "lawful excuse" which would cover these circumstances.