Parenting

Mom Caught Leaving 2-Year-Old Alone in Car While She Goes Grocery Shopping

ParentingPublished Apr 1, 2020
By Genny Glassman
Walmart parking lotiStock

A 20-year-old mom from Florida has been charged with child neglect after she allegedly left her unnamed 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for nearly 30 minutes. Marsha Ouwigho went into a Gainesville Walmart on Saturday to shop for groceries while her daughter was strapped into the back seat of her car.

Other customers at the store called police after noticing a young girl alone in a car.

According to People, after police arrived on the scene and found the girl, they paged her mother inside the store.

When Ouwigho went outside, she told police that she had only been shopping for a few minutes.

But police claim that the opposite is true. Police say Ouwigho was inside the store for 25 minutes, which can be dangerous.

According to Kidsandcars.org, more than 940 children have died from being left in hot cars since 1990. In 2019, the site says 53 children died in hot cars. Heat trapped inside a vehicle can have a greenhouse effect -- even with the windows cracked the "inside of a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes," the website states.

Eighty percent of that rise in temperature happens within the first 10 minutes, and children have died from heatstroke in cars with internal temperatures as low as 60 degrees.

The day that Ouwigho went shopping, the temperature outside the car was 85 degrees.

Police later determined the temperature inside the car had risen to a scorching 113 degrees, People reports.

The mom told authorities that she had a reason for leaving her daughter.

She explained that her daughter was sleeping and she didn't want to wake her.

Luckily, the girl was unharmed when she was found.

It took police 17 minutes total to rescue the toddler, who appeared to be sweating but not harmed.

The mother has been charged with child neglect. 

It's not clear if the mom has retained a lawyer or entered a plea, but her story is a frightening reminder that it's never OK to leave your child in a car alone for any amount of time.

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