Bystanders Break Window To Free Children Left In Hot Car

When two kids were heard crying from inside a locked SUV in the parking lot of a Katy, Tex., strip mall, bystanders rose to action to rescue them from the hot vehicle.

Kids Trapped In SUV Saved By Bystanders

Shoppers heard the young boy and girl crying from inside the hot jeep Monday afternoon. To rescue them, a few of the strip mall shoppers began smashing one of the vehicle’s rear windows. A man in the parking lot wielded a hammer to crack through the glass.

One of the bystanders, Gabriel Del Valle, had heard the cries and had made his way over to the vehicle and recorded the incident on his cell phone. “It was a crazy situation,” Del Valle told KHOU.com. “The kids were in there crying. I mean you would understand. It’s real hot.”

He added that after the man with the hammer broke the glass, it was still difficult to get the kids out. “Even then they could barely open the doors because there was a child lock on,” said Del Valle.

The children’s mother was reportedly getting a haircut and had left her kids in the car to wait. When she came outside, she told those who’d congregated around her vehicle that she was only leaving them in the car temporarily. She then pleaded with everyone to not call the police, admitting she’d made a mistake.

Though Del Valle didn’t phone the authorities, he still doesn’t believe anything excuses her actions on the hot summer day.

“Even a dog can die, so imagine a person,” he said.

GET THE FREE uINTERVIEW iPHONE APP FOR LATEST NEWS UPDATES