It was a hot windy day in Omaha, Nebraska last week, with winds gusting 40 mph. And one of those gusts apparently slammed a car door shut while an aunt – who had just taken her niece home after a day of swimming – was about to get the child out of the back seat. The aunt's keys were still inside the SUV, and the door was locked. She and the mother, who was home, along with two other relatives, tried to break into the car with a screwdriver and a coat hanger, but when the doors wouldn't opened, they called 9-1-1 for help.
The police helped – breaking a window with a hammer and saving the child, but then ticketed the mother for suspicion of child abuse by neglect. Nice.
According to Omaha World Herald:
Lt. Darci Tierney, a police spokeswoman, said the ticket was not an overreaction by the officer who responded to the 911 call.
"We make decisions in the moment with all the information we have available,’’ she said. "This can be a super dangerous situation. People die in these circumstances."
The ticket prompted strong reaction on social media, with some people defending the mother.
"Seriously???," one person wrote on Facebook. "This could happen to anyone."
Luckily the child, who was checked out at the hospital, is okay. And hopefully issuing a ticket to the mother – who wasn't even the person responsible for the locked doors – won't scare people from calling 9-1-1 for help if they accidentally lock their child in a car, which, of course, can be deadly.
Image: Pixabay
