LAUDERDALE LAKES, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward Sheriff’s Office on Monday arrested two people accused of leaving a 3-month-old baby inside a hot car.
Rose Belony, 40, and John Polidor, 43, were both charged with one count of child neglect without great harm.
Polidor was identified as the baby’s father and Belony was identified as the baby’s aunt.
The two appeared in court Tuesday where a judge ordered that they’d be held on a $15,000 bond. They have since paid their bond.
“Sir, you are charged with neglect of a child without great bodily harm,” a judge said.
Both Polidor and Belony were both at an Enterprise Rent-a-Car, located at 2200 N. State Road 7, when they left the child in their car.
“Noting, that Ms. Belony and the co-defendant left a 3-month-old baby in a car at Enterprise Car Rental at 11:30 a.m. for over 30 minutes while the car was turned off and the windows were up, and the heat index at the time of this incident was approximately 109 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Eric Linder, Broward County State Attorney.
Employees at Enterprise noticed the baby and called 911.
“The child’s body temperature was 98.7 degrees after approximately 12 minutes of cool-down procedures,” continued Linder.
The baby was taken to Broward Health Medical Center and is expected to be OK.
Experts with Kids and Car Safety said it is never OK to leave a child inside of a hot car, especially since temperatures rise quickly.
“A vehicle acts like a greenhouse and it heats up very quickly, in fact, about two-thirds of its increase in temperature happens in the first 10 minutes,” said Amber Rollins with Kids and Car Safety. “You combine that with the fact that a child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult and you’ve got a recipe for disaster in a matter of minutes.”
There have been 14 cases of child deaths across the country where they were in a hot car this year. Six of those deaths were in Florida.
Rollins said there are things people can do to help remember that their child is inside the car.
“We want you to create a reminder item and put it in the backseat of the car,” she said. “It could be a large stuffed animal and anytime you strap your child in the car seat, you bring that stuffed animal up to the front seat, as a visual cue that your child is with you.”
Very emotional in court, Belony claimed the whole incident was just an accident.
“We heard the facts in the police report, she made a mistake, Linder said in court. “The child is with the child’s mother, thankfully the baby did not suffer any significant harm.”
As of Tuesday, Polidor bonded out after being arrested and charged with child neglect, 7News spoke with him outside the jail.
“I mean I don’t know, I know God helps,” said Polidor.
The child’s father and aunt are both expected to be back in front of the judge in about three weeks.
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