Police in San Antonio, Texas, say a mother left her three kids in a hot car for almost an hour while she went shopping. The mother was caught after a stranger helped the kids get out of the car.
An anonymous caller told police that there were children inside a turned-off car, which led to the dispatch of officers, according to the original report from the San Antonio Police Department. A 1-month-old, a 2-year-old, and a 4-year-old were found in the car by first rescuers.
The mother of the children (the suspect) was at the scene and said she went into a store and forgot how long she was gone, the police said. “The kids were in the car for about 50 minutes, according to the information we have”
The report says that Angela Garza–Amador was arrested on June 28 and charged with three counts of abandoning or harming a child. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office says she was freed on bond on June 29.
Garza–Amador may have a lawyer, but it’s not clear.
A woman who captured the moment on video told CNN station KENS that she was on her way to a store that sells clothes for kids when she saw a boy in the car next to her.
She said she had “motherly instincts” that made her look inside. She saw another kid in the car and told store employees to call 911. Then she tried to open the car door but found that it wasn’t locked. While she waited for help to come, she helped the kids.
“The boy was crying and sweating a lot,” she said. “It looked like he was gasping for air, like they were already there,” the woman, who did not want to be named, told KENS. “A lot of parents say, ‘Okay, I’ll be right back,’ but a lot can happen in that time.'”
At least three women can be seen in the video helping the three kids get out of the car, including removing a baby from its car seat while the three-year-old boy cries and has trouble breathing.
“Because I live across town, I hadn’t been to that store in ten years,” she said. “I really believe that God sent me over there to help those kids.”
At that time, it was between 98 and 100 degrees in the San Antonio area. A chart from the National Weather Service that shows the difference in temperature between the outside and inside of a car showed that if it was 93 degrees outside and 130 degrees inside, the temperature inside the car could hit 130 degrees after one hour.
The kids were taken to the hospital for treatment, and the original police report says they were supposed to be released from the hospital the same day.
Police said that child protection services were told about what happened.
According to the law, investigation details must be kept secret. However, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services told CNN that there was no open case regarding this family when the report of the event came in. “The kids were not taken in by CPS; instead, they were given to family.”
Kids and Car Safety, a group that studies and keeps track of car death figures, says that at least seven children have died in hot cars in 2024. Since 1990, at least 1,090 kids have died in hot cars across the country.