Speaking of parents that bug ...

Funny that I just posted about things parents do that bug me, and today I came upon three children (very young children -- maybe 2, 1, and 8 months) asleep in the backseat of a running car. I actually heard the car running and thought it was strange, but my sister noticed three kids in the backseat. No, we're not in the heat of summer, but we are unusually warm for this time of year. Today it felt muggy to me, and here the sun is shining on the poor little boy on the one side. I'm guessing the car was running with the air on, but c'mon!

So, I went into the neighboring business and asked around to see if a parent was inside. When I couldn't find one, I called 911. I gave them the address and the license plate of the car. They asked me to wait and to call 911 again if the parent came back to the car to leave, but asked me not to confront the parents. Well, we waited. After 12 minutes of waiting, I was getting really annoyed that a cop wasn't there yet! After I called 911, we also discovered that the doors of the car weren't even locked. Hello! Someone could carjack your kids, kidnap them, or set them out anywhere they'd like and steal your car. Are you serious?!?

At that point I wasn't sure if I should call 911 back and offer to get the kids out of the car, but I also figured that may freak out the kids to be awaken by a total stranger. Plus, then if the mom did come back, that could be messy ...

So, we waited. After 15 minutes of waiting (so 20 minutes after discovering the kids), the mom came back to the car. I called 911 again to tell them she was leaving, and right then is when the cop pulled into the parking lot. I jumped out of my car, hung up on 911 (after telling them the cop was there), and flagged him down. I pointed out the mom and he flipped around and went to pull her over. Phew!

I got back into the car and was shaking. I don't even know why the situation made me shake so much, but apparently I was feeling some adrenalin! As we were driving past the mom and the cop, the mom looked at us and waved. I thought that was totally weird. I'm sure she saw me talking to the cop and pointing her out, but maybe she didn't? Did she just think she knew me? Or did she know I was the one who called the cops? In any case, I found it strange that in the midst of being questioned about leaving children asleep in the car on a hot day she she seemed calm enough to wave at a passerby.

I don't know what they can do if the cop didn't see the kids in the car himself, but I was glad to know that we did what we could. I have to admit that once in a while I'll leave a child in the car while I run into a gas station or something like that that takes 3 minutes max. However, I ALWAYS lock the doors and never leave the car running. It's just too scary of a world! I did feel bad for the mom, but I know I would have felt worse had we done nothing.