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?

The Police should have handed it over. There were unaccompanied children, so on attendance of the FB, they'd have contacted the Police. Tbh, the Police still aren't responding to matters involving children or DV etc as they should.

I used a courtesy car last week and thought it was a bit weird that when you turn the engine off a big picture appears asking you to check there's no one in the back.
A sad reflection on society that this happens.

Would you? How exactly would you have done it? How would you have managed to ensure you didn’t shower two small children with a volley of glass splinters?

This is so sad. I wonder what the circumstances were.

Someone accidentally leaving a sleeping toddler or baby in the car. It seems ridiculous but it definitely happens, and as a parent it is a terrifying thought.

But 2 older children? They tend to make noise and be aware of what’s happening. I think it would be hard to accidentally forget them so it’s much more likely they were left in the car on purpose.

Why is it a sad reflection?

Isn’t it just?!

It wouldn't have been up to the owner

The police have to decide if it's a crime and then forward to the CPS

We don't get to decide in this country and he/she wouldn't have had much of a leg to stand on anyway

Yes I would. If two kids had been left standing outside in your work car park for 4 hours in winter, would you just stand there and look at them? Or do something to help, like take them into your work and look after them until police/SS arrived? Just because they're in a car doesn't make it any different.

Surprisingly enough I would probably use something capable of breaking a glass window to do it. A large-ish stone/rock, hammer, the tyre tools from the back of my own car, office furniture, etc.

I would smash the driver's window after telling the kids to move to the passenger side in the rear of the car (assuming they were already back there) and face away from the window to protect their eyes.

Would have called police and social workers. When I called the police i would have said I am going to break the window.

I think I would have escalated this to a senior officer at the police station, and also contacted social services. It really is quite extraordinary that they didn't prioritise an obvious child safety issue.

Where I live (hot country) people smash car windows open if they spot a dog in the car, never mind a couple of kids. It’s very easy to overheat, and I wouldn’t let kids sit in a Uk winter for four hours either. I did read a tip once if you travel with little kids in the car you should leave one of your shoes in the back seat so you can’t forget about them when getting out of the car.

I passed a breakdown on an A road last night on a dual carriageway. Three police cars in attendance and the road blocked off for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
No wonder there's no police around when they're occupied with the mundane. There should be a lower police type of group that deals with this type of situation. Like an environment police force that deals with small localised kinds of issues. Therefore releasing the real police to deal with crime.

you're supposed to remember you have children without an electronic device needing to tell you

You do realise that a situation like that would be an immediate response as there is a threat to life?

And you have no idea to the full circumstances. It may not have been just a “breakdown”.

Is this UK?
If I was in that situation I would dial 999 and use the phrase "risk to life". And this would be a top priority.

I really doubt this would happen as described in the UK.

Do you work for the emergency services?

It was

How do you know?

And it was still a priority incident even if only a breakdown

A six year old should also be able to undo a car seat buckle as well, surely?

It's Easy enough to say "smash the window" but with what? What do most people have lying around that would easily and safely smash it. Not to mention the danger to the kids. If the kids were in actual danger (e.g. unconscious in a hot car) then yes I would have had to do something immediately, but "distressed" isn't the same as active danger. I'd be less concerned about any possible issues surrounding being blamed for the car, and more about injuring the kids by shattering a glass window very close to them.

It's also just as easy to complain about "the police" but who are you actually moaning about? The actual officers on the street who aren't aware of incidents until they are told about them and tasked to attend? It's not like they are told "there's a stabbing, a shoplifter, someone in MH crisis and 2 kids trapped in a car, which one do you fancy going to?"

Or the dispatchers who probably categorised it as the highest priority (the most they can do) but if they don't have anyone available to send there's nothing they can do. I used to work with the police and there were shifts when there would be literally only two officers covering the whole area. If they are in the middle of arresting someone and taking them to custody what do you want them to do, exactly? Let the suspect go to attend this new incident?

And yet no one in the actual situation as reported by the OP did this. Which is perhaps a better guide to actual likely behaviour than what you imagine you would definitely do. An old sociology lecturer in my institution used to fake collapsing with a fit or heart attack in a packed 300-seater lecture every year to demonstrate the ‘bystander effect’.

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

I imagine that’s probably what happened here — having multiple people observing diffuses the sense of responsibility one person would feel on discovering whatever it was alone, and ‘social influence’ (how other people are perceived to respond to a situation governing individual responses ) mitigated their sense of how immediately requiring of action it was, especially when the police didn’t send someone, and the children weren’t in obvious immediate danger.

Plus I imagine that it’s unlikely that the first thing anyone did was check CCTV, so no one knew for a while the children had been left for hours, which meant that, while concerned, many people initially thought a parent would return any second, and think they’d overreacted and damaged their car if they’d smashed in a window.

I imagine it’s also likely that the fear of hurting a child while smashing in a window prevented this being the immediate response. And if it was in the OP’s sister’s workplace, there was probably a sense of ‘someone senior needs to make a call on this’.

So while I’d love to think I’d weigh in like the Rock and smash the window and lift the children to safety with my rippling biceps, it’s not hard to imagine why this didn’t actually happen.

Children have died after being left in hot cars in the US and parents apparently forgetting g about them.

edition.cnn.com/2024/07/17/us/hot-car-deaths-charges/index.html

You’re allowed to smash windows to rescue a dog, so I’d definitely do it to rescue a child

And 99.99% of the time, people do. But human brains are fallible. And circumstances combine which mean minor oversights can have tragic consequences. If you read into incidents like this, it doesn't happen because parents don't love their kids. Usually, something in a routine has changed, people are under unusual pressure, they make an assumption that every other day would be fine (e.g. that their partner has taken the kids to school), and their brain just goes with it. Even an alert in the car saying "check the back seat" won't work every time, because people will get used to it, assume the back seat is empty as it always should be on a Thursday (or whatever) and ignore it. It's not modern society, it's human brains.

Every so often on Mumsnet there'll be a thread of parents sharing stories of how they forgot to pick a child up from school, or only picked up one sibling because they thought the other had a club etc. My DH has fallen asleep and missed school pickup. I'm a Brownie leader and at least once a year will have to call a parent to collect their child - they've usually just got distracted and forgotten. They don't not love their kids because of this, they're not bad people, and it could happen to you. Usually the stakes are lower, fortunately.

The children could have been told that they must not open the doors to strangers and would be fearful of doing so .

I would have smashed the front windsheild or asked the local windsheild seller to do just that.
Why couldn't the kids be instructed to open the door?

You would not have been prosecuted - especially when a number ofyou were clearly concerned and you had witnesses.