Yesterday I went to the grocery store. As I was getting Evelyn out of the car, I noticed 2 little kids in the car next to me. ALONE! The doors were unlocked and the kids were no more the kindergarten age, most likely younger. They were fine, just jumping around and playing. But no adult in site... except me. So I stayed by my car and just hung out, not wanting to leave them out there. I debated calling 911... but it wasn't a true emergency... or was it?
A few minutes later, a women came out of the store and went to the car. She only had one bag, so it appeared she wasn't in the store long. I gently told her it probably wasn't the safest thing to leave her kids alone in a unlocked car. She said, "were they out of the car?" I said no, and again said it wasn't a good idea to leave kids alone in a car. She just gave me a blank stare, got in her car, and drove off.
I got the license plate and called the non-emergency police line. Basically there is nothing they can do unless they arrive on the scene when it is happening. If I had called 911, which the police officer said would have been fine to do, the police wouldn't have gotten there in time, as the lady came out only a few minutes after I arrived.
I wish we lived in a world that was safe enough to leave young kids in the car to run a quick errand. But we don't, and this whole thing just really bothered me.
What would you have done?
4 comments:
Um... I would have called 9-1-1. That's neglectful.
Yeah... the kids were safe and I remember my Mom leaving us in the car to run errands when we were little, but the world is different now.
WOW!
I think I would have called the non-emergency line, although I would have been tempted to call 911, just to shake the woman up a little bit--And yes, I do feel leaving kids in the car by themselves in a public place is wrong. I even feel guilty/a little sick to my stomach when we've gone to pick up my parents, and I leave our girl in her car seat in the driveway. I can still see the car, but I wonder what goes through her mind...Is Mommy coming back? I realize it's a hassle to drag children with you, when you're just going to run in for something for a minute, but is really worth the risk? What if it wasn't someone like you, Steph, who found them? Would she really like to go through that heartache?
I would have called 911. I learned a scary lesson once... jumped out of the car to run my drycleaning in (parked right in front of the cleaners. Nate was 3 1/2 at the time. I was gone like, 90 seconds, with my back to the car for such a short time and he managed to get out and wander ALL THE WAY DOWN the strip-mall to the frozen yogurt store. So many things could have happened... he could have run into the street and gotten hit being the most obvious. I never did that again. I can't imagine ever leaving them when I don't have a "visual" on them.
You handled it well.
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