A toddler was recovered from a locked car in lethargic condition and unable to speak after a passerby at a shopping center parking lot noticed the little girl alone in the vehicle, police say.
Police were called to the parking lot of a Long Island shopping center Thursday afternoon after someone called to report seeing a girl locked in a 2000 Nissan Frontier with its windows closed.
Responding officers broke the car window and removed the girl from the car. She was taken to Huntington Hospital to be evaluated, and is expected to be released to her mother, police say.
The girl's 30-year-old father, Melvin Marroquin of Maryland, returned to the vehicle about 10 minutes after officers arrived and told police he had been shopping at a Marshalls store.
Marroquin, who was arrested on charges of child endangerment and reckless endangerment, is expected to be held overnight and arraigned Friday at First District Court in Central Islip.
It's not clear if Marroquin has an attorney.
