It’s an unfortunate story that we hear every summer: young children getting left in cars in the sweltering heat.
Fortunately for a Gaithersburg child, a Good Samaritan was nearby and rescued her from a hot car.
On Friday, Tom Hruska was looking for a parking spot in a garage at the Rio Entertainment Complex, but had to go all the way to the sun-soaked roof to find an opening.
As he left his car, he heard a baby crying and saw the three-month-old in a Volkswagen Beetle. Hruska ran to a nearby gym to call 911, then hurried back to his own car and got a wrench.
"I broke the window and then I got the door open and I took the baby out," Hruska said. "It didn’t look really good. Its eyes were closing."
The little girl had been left there by her father. She was rushed to the hospital; today, she's safe and at home.
"This car had absolutely no shade; [it] was in a spot where direct sun was beating down on the car," said Lucille Bauer of Montgomery County Police. "When the baby was found, she was sweating, she was crying."
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Police are thankful that someone took the proper steps to rescue the child, but they also see this as a teaching moment for all parents.
"What a lot of people don’t understand is, even when leaving windows cracked, it does not alleviate the heat buildup that goes inside," Bauer said.
At this time, the baby's father has not been charged, but authorities are still investigating. If authorities find that there was any negligence, he could receive a $500 fine or up to 30 days in jail.
