NJ Mom Left Baby in Car While Shopping
A New Jersey mother left her toddler in a hot car with
the windows rolled up for more than a half-hour as she shopped inside a mall,
unaware the boy had become unresponsive in the heat, authorities said.
Tatiana Deleao, 31, of Kearny, N.J. left her 1-year-old
son buckled in a car safety seat as she went shopping inside a T.J. Maxx store
on Valley Brook Avenue Saturday afternoon, according to police. The temperature
outside at the time was 80 degrees.
But a Good Samaritan who helped bring the boy out said it
"felt like an oven" inside the vehicle.
Karen Wagner, a dental receptionist from Lyndhurst, said
she was in the parking lot of the strip mall when a woman approached her and
told her in broken English there was a baby locked inside a car.
Wagner called 911 and flagged down a passing fire truck.
Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Rente jumped out and opened the driver's door of the
car to find the baby unresponsive.
"He's standing and holding the baby, and the baby
was lifeless," Wagner told NBC 4 New York, emotional as she recalled
seeing the child. "Nothing. Even when I put my hand on his chest, nothing.
He was saturated in sweat."
"One of the officers that showed up, he's opening up
his medical bag, and I said, 'Oh my God, hurry up, the baby is dying,"
said Wagner.
By the time police officers arrived, a crowd had gathered
near the car, and when the baby's mother and her sister emerged from the store,
a man said he had seen her an hour ago in Radio Shack, said Wagner.
"The police officers took her away, and her sister
was screaming, 'Oh my God, you left the baby, you left the baby,'" said
Wagner.
The baby was taken to Clara Maas Hospital in Bellevelle,
and is expected to be OK.
Deleao allegedly told an officer she forgot that she'd
left her son in the car. Attorney information on Deleao was not immediately
available.
Deleao was taken into police custody and charged with
child endangerment. She was released on $25,000 bond.
Wagner, a mother of three, said it was motherly instinct
that helped her spring into action.
"I was in the right place at the right time,"
she said.
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