Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be furious at the idiotic woman who left her child in the car on a retail park car park ...

27 replies

Plonker · 17/04/2009 22:58

...alone and with the windows fully shut?!?

Hmf - I know that I'm not, I just want to rant!!

This afternoon, some barmy mother left her small child (I'm guessing around 3yo) alone in a boiling hot fucking car on a retail park car park

A shop assistant was frantically running around the shop asking customers if anyone owned a *** car. It turned out that shop assistants in all the shops on the retail park where doing the same thing. We came out of the shop and the assistant was stood outside the car. I asked if she was ok (she was visibly upset) and she showed me the little boy.

He wasn't crying when I went over. He just looked rather confused and very hot. A lady had been stood with him and had managed to get him to take his t-shirt off and we showed him where the roller was to wind down the window. He managed to wind it down about an inch but wasn't strong enough to wind it further.

We stayed with the little boy for a good 20 minutes before one of shop assistants ran out of a shop saying they'd found mum. Over she strolled, opened the door and asked him if he was ok, got in the car and drove off.

Unbelievable

OP posts:
misdee · 17/04/2009 22:59
Shock
mummywilldrive · 17/04/2009 23:00
Shock
BananaFruitBat · 17/04/2009 23:00

I'd have phoned the police.

SoupDragon · 17/04/2009 23:00

They should have just called the police.

BunnyLebowski · 17/04/2009 23:00

Shock Shock Shock

LadyOfWaffle · 17/04/2009 23:00

I'd have phoned the police TBH, what an awful woman

thisisyesterday · 17/04/2009 23:01

i'd have called the police.

Thunderduck · 17/04/2009 23:02

Poor kid. They should have called the police.

EightiesChick · 17/04/2009 23:03

I would have been tempted to call the police on finding a small child locked in a car, and I think it would have been justified. What if the mother had collapsed somewhere and been carted off to hospital without the child? Even worse that it was no such thing.

Original poster
Plonker · 17/04/2009 23:03

One of the shop assistants was about to just as they found mum ...

OP posts:
edam · 17/04/2009 23:04

Bloody hell.

Mother is clearly an idiot but reassuring to hear how many people tried to help.

verygreenlawn · 17/04/2009 23:08

My mum saw this once - exactly the same situation. Security guard just walked over and broke the window, then took the child to the supermarket office - the owner of the car then called the police when she got back some time later wanting the security guard arrested for criminal damage. The police set her straight and told her she was lucky not to be cautioned for neglect.

Bigpants1 · 17/04/2009 23:23

Do you know if there were any cctv cameras in the car-park? They could show the number plate and/or the situation as it evolved. Im asking, as I think I would hope someone would give the info. to the police. It may be after the fact, but it is something too serious to ignore. To be generous to the mum,(though I dont feel like it), perhaps she didnt realise how hot the car/child would get. But, then, I think, even without it being hot,to leave a small dc alone in a car for that length of time, and not in sight, she must surely know thats not acceptable. And then, to waltz back,and drive off??? OK, she may have been embarassed-I hope she was-did she ask why people were standing at her car upset?Did she say thankyou?
Really,I think, the police need to have a word with her. If no-one had noticed the dc, or if the mum was gone even longer, things might not have turned out the way they did-dc have died in cars before-they can overheat very quickly.
In that situation, I would have called the police, while someone was trying to locate the parent-they would attend straightaway, and would have the means to open the window/door.
Did anyone say anything to her, or was everyone in shock?

Stayingsunnygirl · 17/04/2009 23:26

In a similar situation, my dad called the police. They broke the car window and rescued a baby who was lucky to be alive according to the paramedics.

Flibbertyjibbet · 17/04/2009 23:30

I am that someone would even leave a child in a car on a retail car park unattended and even more on a warm day with all the windows shut.
When ds2 was 7 weeks old I put him in his car seat, shut the door, went round to the drivers side and found that I'd locked myself out of the car somehow.
I SHIT myself, it was a scorching day, the sunroof was open a bit so a lady sprinkled water on him, dp was only 20 mins away with his key for my car, but what frightened me the most (apart from my baby being too hot) was that people get prosecuted for leaving their children in cars and that someone would have called the police!
So to do it deliberately, blimey what are some people on?

Ronaldinhio · 17/04/2009 23:32

My brother has smashed a window and removed a child before and called the police.

No excuse

steviesgirl · 17/04/2009 23:33

God it's against the law to leave a dog in a car with no ventilation, let alone a child.

Bloody outrageous. She should have been prosecuted. Like I say, she would have been if it had been a dog!!

Anything could have happened to him

Original poster
Plonker · 17/04/2009 23:54

Bigpants - I don't know about CCTV but the shop assistant definitely had the make of car and reg plate and she was just about to make the call to the police when mum turned up.

What was most to me was the delay between one of the assistants shouting to us over by the car that mum was coming, and mum actually coming. She was in no rush

Dh was annoyed that she didn't say thank you, but to be fair I figured that she would be extremely embarrassed (he didn't think so - he could very well be right) and wasn't so much concerned at the lack of thanks as I was to the lack of urgency on her part iykwim.

Yes - I spoke to her - I explained to her that her ds had been crying and that we had persuaded him to take off his t-shirt and he had managed to wind the window down. I should have given a gobful really, not sure why I didn't. She didn't look at me - again, I didn't think anything was particularly odd with that because I assumed she was embarrassed and didn't want to discuss it. Maybe she just thought we were all interfering busy-bodies ...I really have no idea what was going through her mind. And I'm not sure I want to know.

Stupid, stupid woman.

OP posts:
Poppity · 22/04/2009 00:06

Ava's Rule

Gillyan · 22/04/2009 00:38

People talk about bringing dog licenscing in to force and I agree but think some people should have a licensce to have a child. Stupid woman

AliceMumma · 22/04/2009 05:18

A girl age 2 died only last year in Australia of being left in a car in midsummer. Horrible. The parents should be charged with murder

alicecrail · 22/04/2009 06:57

Flibertyjibbet I did exactly the same when my dd was 7 weeks old! It was beginning of january, she was fast asleep and quite happy, i was bloody freezing! Nice RAC man came to the rescue

I think it's shocking that the mother just drove off! Hopefully it has taught her a lesson.

yappybluedog · 22/04/2009 07:44

timely

MuffinBaker · 22/04/2009 08:22

That is just awful.

That poor child.

MarlaSinger · 22/04/2009 08:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Swipe left for the next trending thread