Even after police broke the window, the door of a hot car, where a 2-year-old boy was burning in the car seat, did not unlock on July 8. So Officer Michael Phoenix’s Coddington gave his associate, Officer Mike Mehlhouse, a boost.
Mehlhouse crawled through the broken window to the crying child. He described how it felt to lift the boy out of the car seat and hand him over to his relieved mother.
“It was a feeling of helplessness, I can imagine, that she was feeling. I feel terrible for her and I feel terrible for the child,” Mehlhouse said. “I’m so grateful to be out there and be able to help.”
Police said the boy’s mother had just returned from the grocery store and was about to carry the baby and bag into the house when she accidentally locked herself outside the pickup truck.
Coddington said: “After he got tested, it was great to see him playing with his Legos and having a good time, so it was great to see that solution.
Just two days before this incident, Phoenix police rescued two other children trapped in a hot car. It’s a similar scenario with the mother locking her keys inside. Both incidents occurred while Maricopa County was under extreme heat warnings.
So far in 2021, seven children have died in hot cars around the country, according to NoHeatStroke.org, a group that tracks reports of child deaths from heat.
First responders want to keep that number as close to zero as possible.
“It is never fast enough to leave your child in the car. In this heat, even a few minutes is not okay,” Mehlhouse said.
Others also commented:
“Someone should make or invent some sort of sticky plastic sheet to quickly slap on the car window before breaking it , to lessen the flying glass.”
“How can a child be crying that hard and their feet not moving? Not even a twitch..? Suspicious..”
“Hopefully they removed that child from their care, this time he/she got lucky, who knows next time.”
“Poor baby… Salute to the hero who saved that childs life”
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