MUM LEFT TOT IN 25C HEATWAVE
Gran’s alert at store
A TODDLER was abandoned in a car on one of the hottest days of the year as his mother shopped in Tesco.
Shocked gran Dorothy Martin spotted the sleeping boy in the front seat of a Fiat in the store’s car park with a window barely open.
Another concerned member of the public soon joined her in trying to push the sun visor down over the tot as temperatures nudged 25C.
Retired cook Dorothy, 60, reported the lad to supermarket staff but was hit with a torrent of abuse when the mother returned after 25 minutes.
Shining
She said: “I was shocked. The sun was shining on his little face, God bless him. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
“Anybody could have taken that child out or driven that car away. Nobody expected the woman to be over 20 minutes.
“I could have phoned the police. I’m just pleased it wasn’t an hour because it was a very hot day.”
When the mum reappeared Dorothy confronted her about the dangers of leaving a child unaccompanied, but ® she said the angry woman claimed she had only been in the store for less than 10 minutes.
Dorothy added: “I told her that she shouldn’t have a child if she looks after them like that.
“She started shouting at me and she was very irate. I think it was embarrassment.
“She called me a busybody but I’ve got broad shoulders.”
The boy’s mum, who did not want to be named, later admitted that she left her son on his own in the car park in Whitehaven, Cumbria, on Wednesday.
But she was adamant that it was not for 25 minutes, as witnesses had claimed.
She said: “It wasn’t really anything that happened.
“The windows were down, the child was strapped in and I was less than five minutes while I popped into the shop.
“The lies some people are coming out with – I don’t get it. I have heard the claims but that’s nonsense.”
A spokesman for Cumbria Police said the incident had been reported to them and they were investigating.