What is it with hot cars and Walmarts lately?
Earlier this week, the Inquisitr shared that Stephanie Shae Thomas of Trussville, Alabama is currently facing charges of aggravated cruelty to animals after she left her dog in a Mercedes for an extended period of time on July 4. According to reports, the woman parked her car in the Walmart parking lot at 4 a.m., leaving the dog inside of the hot vehicle. Before she came out, multiple bystanders tried to free the dog from the car but were unsuccessful. Eventually, the police were called to try to help with the sad situation but sadly, the dog didn’t make.
Now, Fox News is sharing that another woman is in trouble after leaving a 9-month-old and a 1-year-old inside of her hot SUV while she went to shop at a Walmart in Ontario, California. According to a report, a group of people surrounded 34-year-old Crystal Gonzales’ car after noticing that two young children were in the vehicle that was left unattended. The youngsters were allegedly “in distress due to the high temperatures,” as temps reached over 100 degrees that day. A security guard from the store ended up calling police to help aid in the situation and fire fighters were able to open the car to get to the babies.
Ontario police Detective Melissa Ramirez shared that the car was off, which means that no air conditioning was being produced and the children were not being cooled. However, it was reported that the windows were slightly cracked. It is estimated that the 34-year-old was shopping inside of the store for about 30 minutes before she returned to the vehicle.
CA Woman Crystal Gonzales Under Arrest After Leaving 2 Babies In Sweltering SUV While Shopping At Ontario Walmart https://t.co/fRAwX3MfEC pic.twitter.com/mx4ElXoQi4
— THECOUNT.COM ™ © (@THECOUNTnews) July 11, 2018
It is unclear whether or not the children a belong to Gonzales or if she was babysitting them as they have yet to be identified, but Gonzales claims that the children do belong to her. When she was questioned about the incident, she told police that both children were sleeping when she parked the car and she didn’t want to wake them up to go inside the store.
“But when you think of that, would you rather have your child fussy inside the store, or start planning their funeral because you decided to leave the child inside the car without AC while you went shopping for whatever?” Ontario Police Detective Melissa Ramirez said to Gonzales’ statement.
The woman was arrested at the scene and a local Child Protective Services took the two children, who were evaluated but it was determined that they didn’t need to go to the hospital for further medical treatment. Gonzales faces a child endangerment charge and is currently out of jail after posting $100,000 bond.
