‘It was like opening an oven door’
Irate Napier shopper airs her disgust after finding distressed kids trapped in 33C heat
Ayoung boy and girl were found distressed and sweating profusely after being locked in a hot car in 33C heat while their mother shopped. Napier woman Chrystal Alatasi discovered the upset children inside a car parked at the New World in Greenmeadows on Sunday.
She had just finished loading her groceries into her car when she heard a child crying.
She approached a black car with tinted windows; there were no adults in the front but she spotted a toddler and a young girl in the back, both showing signs of distress.
A desperate Alatasi tried every door, but the car was locked. She called 111 and thought she was going to have to smash a window.
But the emergency call-taker suggested asking the girl in the car if she could unlock it from the inside, which she managed to do, following Alatasi’s instructions.
“It was like opening an oven door,” Alatasi told the “A blast of heat came out as the car door opened.
“The two children were dripping, sweating profusely, with red cheeks, and crying.” She was unsure how old the children were but estimated the boy was about 2 and the girl about 5. “It was shocking, that baby was in the full-blown sun.”
The two children had water bottles on their car seats — but the baby’s bottle had fallen down, Alatasi said.
The woman asked the girl, who told her the family were from Dunedin and holidaying in Napier, to climb over to her baby brother’s side of the car and unlock his door as well. She didn’t want to get them out of the vehicle but rather to get them fresh air.
After a few minutes, Alatasi saw the mother emerging from the supermarket and coming towards them. “She was looking at me funny. I was so upset and angry, I was shaking and crying,” she said.
“She wasn’t rushing to the car.
“It’s absolutely disgusting. I had a go at her, she said it was a mistake.” Alatasi said she stayed behind the car waiting for police to arrive, and left when they got there and began speaking to the woman. She took to social media to express her “disgust” at the situation, and said she had no doubt the children’s lives were put at risk.
Police confirmed a report of children being left unaccompanied in a car in Napier was made just before 5pm on Sunday.
“The offender was given a formal warning and a report will be made with Oranga Tamariki.”