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Heartbreaking moment: Police cradle baby found ‘locked inside sweltering car’ outside mall as driver faces jail after dramatic rescue
- Police rescued two children from a hot locked car
- Officers broke window to reach children 1 and 4 years old
- The driver could face charges, be fined or jailed
Haunting footage has emerged of a police officer tenderly cradling a baby after the one-year-old and a 4-year-old boy were pulled from a hot, locked car in a frantic rescue outside a shopping mall. the Monday in the afternoon.
Dramatic footage obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia showed police officers using a hammer and truncheon to pry open the front passenger side window of the Honda hatchback in a car park at Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Alarmed shoppers called emergency services after seeing the two children alone and strapped to the back of the locked car sometime after 2 p.m.
Both children were taken from the car unharmed with new footage captured after the dramatic rescue showing a female police officer cradling the youngest child.
The driver, a young woman who rushed back to the car with her purchases to find it surrounded by police officers and bystanders, was contacted by officers at the scene and could still face charges that carry a possible jail sentence.
A police officer tenderly cradles an infant, the one-year-old boy who was left locked in the car on Monday, after police officers successfully rescued the toddler and a 4-year-old boy from the sweltering parking lot.
NSW Police confirmed on Tuesday that officers have “not yet” charged the woman, but she could be held liable under the Child and Young Persons Care and Protection Act.
If you are charged and convicted of failing to care for a child, you could face a maximum fine of $22,000 or six months in prison.
New South Wales Law provides that a person who leaves a child or young person in their care inside a motor vehicle without adequate supervision for such a period that the child becomes emotionally distressed or physically disabled is guilty of an offense .
The witness who captured the dramatic incident on camera told Daily Mail Australia that they saw NRMA roadside assistance arrive along with Fire & Rescue NSW.
The witness believed that another bystander had called triple zero after seeing the children inside.
The witness said the driver of the Honda had rushed back to the car with the purchases and was “clearly in shock at what he was seeing.”
A police officer takes a hammer and then a baton at the front passenger side window of the woman’s Honda hatchback after buyers reported seeing two children inside the locked vehicle.
A woman returns to the car with three shopping bags after police successfully rescued two children, ages one and four, from the locked vehicle on Monday afternoon.
“It certainly wasn’t ‘cool’ in the parking lot, so it’s very dangerous to leave kids alone here,” the witness said.
It comes just weeks after a young child was killed in a sweltering car in Glenfield, south-west Sydney, as horrified family members collapsed at the scene.
Temperatures in the Glenfield area reached 34°C on February 2, the day the three-year-old was found in the vehicle outside a grocery store.
NSW Police officers also had to break a window to reach the boy inside, but it was too late.