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Stunned staff at a rental car company opened up a hot vehicle to find a struggling toddler crying inside which had been left there by her grandad.
Workers at the Hertz car rental at Daytona Beach International Airport in Florida found the child, just under two-year-old, trapped in the locked car while the sun baked down with 26C heat.
The childs grandfather, identified as 62-year-old David Towner, was charged with one count of child neglect and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail.
Staff who recovered the stricken child will be given citizens awards by Sherffitr Mike Chitwood as a reward for their actions.
Paramedics and police were called to the scene and the toddler was brought out quot;scared and hotquot;, but made a full recovery.
A statement by the Volusia County Sherrifs Office said: quot;Employees at a car rental lot at Daytona Beach International Airport discovered a toddler who was left in the back seat of a returned vehicle for about 45 minutes Monday evening.
quot;Deputies assigned to the airport responded to the Hertz rental lot around 6pm Monday after a Hertz employee reported the toddler was found in a locked vehicle in the car return lot.
Police said Towner was quot;remorseful and cooperative with deputiesquot;, they believe the regretful grandad forgot the child when he returned the car at 5.13pm that day.
They added: quot;Deputies arrived to find the employee carrying the child, whose face was warm and streaked with dried tears, but was breathing normally.quot;
Police were initially only able to locate the family members when a call came in from the childs concerned mum, as Hertz workers tried to get in contact with Towner, but were unsuccessful.
quot;The vehicle had been returned at 5.13pm, and deputies and airport staff initially were unable to make contact with the driver.
quot;Then a call came in from the child’s mother, who had just learned her father had left her daughter in the rental car – not at his home, as he’d told her. The mother was on her way to the airport immediately to be reunited with her child.quot;
Parents and guardians are warned to never leave their children in a hot car due to the serious risk of medical problems.
Parenting website the Raising Children Network say children quot;can suffer life-threatening heatstroke, rapid dehydration, suffocation and deathquot; if exposed to high temperatures for too long.
In the state of Georgia in July, a child was left in a car in 40C heat and passed away.
Just one year old, the child was left outside a Walgreens store where its mother worked. They were treated by emergency services and rushed to the hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival.
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