Woman May Face Charges for Leaving Baby in Hot Car

A woman who left her baby in her car Thursday afternoon when temperatures were hovering around 95 degrees could face child endangerment charges, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kelly Hoover. Whether to file charges or not will be up to the District Attorney’s Office.

Around 1 p.m. on Thursday, as high temperates were breaking records up and down the Central Coast, Sheriff’s deputies went to the Magnolia Shopping Center on Hollister Avenue, after someone called 9-1-1 about a baby being left alone in a car with the windows slightly rolled down. It’s unclear how long the child had been there.

The baby, a nine-month-old boy, was removed from the car by a firefighter and was upset and hot but otherwise unharmed, Hoover said. Authorities were there for 10-15 mintues before the woman, 32, returned from the grocery store.

The boy was released back into the custody of his mother — whose name the Sheriff’s Office isn’t disclosing because she wasn’t arrested — but with a referral to Child Welfare Services, Hoover said.