Baby was left alone in car twice the same day.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A Connecticut woman has been charged with leaving her 4-month-old baby alone in her car twice in one day.
Officers responded to a parking garage at 770 Connecticut Ave. after a passerby reported hearing a baby crying in distress and found an infant in a Toyota SUV with the windows up, police said.Follow @ambazaarmag
As police and Norwalk firefighters worked to get the baby out, the mother of the child, Hiroko Kurihara, returned to the scene. Kurihara told officers she left the child in the car while working out at the gym for roughly an hour during the morning, and again for a half-hour period in the middle of the day, reported the Hartford Courant.
“The baby was definitely hot when I touched toes,” Jen Pennucci told ABC affiliate KTRK. “Wasn’t sweaty, but could tell had been crying a while and under distress.”
Kurihara, 46, of Clovelly Road, Stamford, was arrested at the scene and charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor and two counts of unattended child left in a car.
While was held on $10,000 bond, the baby was taken to Norwalk Hospital for evaluation and was later released to the father.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles, according to KidsAndCars.org, which amounts to one every nine days. Last year, 32 children died from heat stroke after being left unattended in a vehicle.