Oklahoma Kids Rescued From Hot Car at Walmart and Texas Needs New Laws on This Issue
Thank goodness someone saw these two kids in the backseat at an Oklahoma City Walmart on Sunday.
On Sunday in Oklahoma City, temperatures peaked at around 94 degrees. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, a mother walked into a local Walmart to do her shopping. Leaving two small children in the backseat with the doors locked and windows rolled up. Some Good Samaritans spotted the small children and alerted Walmart security.
Several intercom announcements were made in the store with vehicle and license plate numbers. No one came to the vehicle. Someone was able to break the sunroof of the vehicle and get inside to unlock the doors. According to reports, the children were lethargic upon being pulled out of the car. They were put into an air conditioned car to cool off. Forty minutes later, the mom finally came back to the car.
She was arrested and is facing two charges of child neglect. The children are currently staying with other family members. “It doesn’t matter how important your errand is; those kids are the most important thing, or at least, they should be,” said CEO Joe Dorman of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.
He says if you see a child locked in a hot car, don’t hesitate. “They are not only well within their right to go through the car, even if it damages the car; I would say it’s encouraged to make sure those kids are safe. For a parent or guardian, just to think they would leave their kids in a car on a hot day like that, it’s just astounding,” he said.
Just a friendly reminder, in Oklahoma you can do this without facing any legal repercussions whatsoever. However here in Texas, for some reason we still have insane to me laws still on the books. If you see a kid or animal in a locked car in Texas and break the window to rescue them. The owner has the right to sue you for damages to the vehicle in Texas and yes people have won these cases in our state.
Oklahoma House Bill 1902 states that anyone breaking into a locked vehicle to rescue a child cannot be sued. I highly encourage Texas to have a similar law on the books because it is absolutely ridiculous that as hot as it gets here. Recusing a helpless individual could result in a lawsuit.
