Grandpa is charged with ‘forgetting’ his toddler granddaughter in rental car after dropping it off

A 62-year-old Florida grandpa was charged and arrested for child neglect after forgetting his toddler granddaughter in an undamaged and hot rental car. He returned to the airport.

David Towner was on babysitting duty Monday when he went to Daytona Beach International Airport at 5:00 PM to return his Hertz rental car.

Footage obtained by DailyMail.com showed the moment when Volusia Sheriff deputies arrived at the airport after Steven Stivers, a Hertz employee, discovered the toddler about 45 minutes later with dried up tears on her face.

‘[The toddler] appeared to have dried tears on her face and her skin was noticeably red,” said an affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com.

‘Deputy Durney laid his hands on’ [her] forehead and noted that her skin was warm to the touch, similar to a fever. [She] appeared to be breathing normally and no obvious signs of trauma were seen.”

Officers were able to contact the toddler’s mother after she frantically called the police after she went to her father’s house and found her daughter missing.

The toddler was later reunited with her mother and Towner was arrested for leaving his granddaughter in the car with no shade in 80 degree weather.

Dahronda Patterson, another Hertz employee, was seen on police bodycam footage holding the toddler when police arrived at the airport around 6:00 PM.

The inaudible blurry-faced video of the toddler showed police approaching Patterson as emergency services rushed to check the approximately two-year-old’s vital signs.

Patterson informed police that Stivers found the toddler in the back of a 2019 Chevrolet Equinox while transporting surrendered vehicles.

“He immediately notified Patterson who removed her from the vehicle and took her to the main terminal,” the statement read.

Police were told that the car was originally leased by a William Ford in Pennsylvania, but were told by airport officials that Ford did not have a flight reservation.

It is unclear who Ford is.

“Then came a call from the child’s mother, who had just learned that her father had left her daughter in the rental car — not at his home, as he had told her,” The Volusia Sheriff Department wrote on Facebook.

The mother later told police that she had arrived at the airport at about 5:30 p.m. to pick up Towner after he dropped off his rent.

Towner told his daughter that the toddler was back home with his roommate. She then went to Towner’s house.

‘When [the mother] arrived at the house she immediately noticed [her daughter] was not there,” the statement read.

Towner and his daughter immediately searched the house for the toddler, but were told by the roommate that the 62-year-old placed his granddaughter in the back seat of the vehicle before heading to the airport.

‘[She] stated that she called 911 and was told that: [her daughter] was possible at the airport.’

Police said Towner was “repentant and cooperating with the investigation and his arrest.”

Investigators were told by the toddler’s mother that her father has a drinking problem. Although Towner did not appear intoxicated, police noted that he smelled of alcohol.

Despite the allegations, Towner insisted he was sober that day and had no history of mental health issues.

Additional footage from the Hertz car drop-off lane at the airport also showed Towner exiting his vehicle and not returning.

While Towner was lucky enough to have his granddaughter safe, there have been 30 fatal car deaths so far in 2022, according to Kids and Car Safety.

The latest hot streak of hot car deaths was in Texas, Florida and Alabama on Sept. 20.

The ages of the children unknowingly left in the back seats of vehicles were between 8 months and two years old.