A dramatic rescue was caught on camera after two children were locked inside an SUV in the midst of dangerously hot temperatures.
A woman was at the Upper Darby branch of Delaware County Community College on the 1500 block of Garrett Road around 11 a.m. Monday when her two children, a baby and a young girl, accidentally locked themselves inside her Dodge Durango. Temperatures were in the upper 80's in the area at the time.
"She loaded up her kids properly and strapped them in the car seats in the back of the vehicle," said Upper Darby Police Officer Frank Guille. "As she placed her diaper bag in the car I believe one of the children hit the door locks on her."
The mother quickly called 911. Officer Guille and Officer Charles Peterson as well as security guards arrived at the scene.
Jason Graham, who was with his grandchildren in the parking lot during the incident, recorded the rescue on his cellphone.
“The cops and the mother were real jumpy,” Graham said. “The cops were moving real quick, non-stop.”
The officers first tried to use a door wedge to get at the lock button in the vehicle but the anti-theft features on the Durango stopped them. Officer Peterson then grabbed a flash light and a towel to break the window.
"With the tinted windows it almost spider webs so we broke it as much as we could but we used a towel to break open a larger hole to where we were able to stick our hand in and open the door," Officer Guille said.
Officer Guille and the mother took both children out of the vehicle and placed them inside an air-conditioned patrol car. The children were not harmed during the incident though they were checked as a precaution.
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Police say they consider the incident an accident and will not charge the mom. They also say they're seeing more accidental lockings with the rise of keyless admission systems in vehicles. They advise parents to roll down the windows first whenever they are taking their children out of a vehicle.
