Police break window to rescue child from hot car

LAKE WALES, FL -- A father and grandmother are behind bars accused of negligent child abuse after police said they left a 3-year-old girl inside a car Wednesday afternoon in a Walmart parking lot.

Timothy Adams and Anna Adams were arrested shortly after a Walmart customer discovered the girl sitting in the back of a Honda Element and called the police.

"Immediately the officers broke the window, the sergeant reached in and grabbed the child. The child had been crying. The child was hot sweaty, hair matted to her face, her face red," said Lt. David Black with the Lake Wales Police Department.

"As soon as the sergeant grabbed her, pulled her out of the car, she just wrapped her arms around him," added Lt. Black. Investigators think she was inside the car for at least 20 minutes. The child was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay.

According to LWPD, both Timothy and Anna claimed they thought the other had the child with them when they went inside the store. However; investigators explain that surveillance video tells a different story.

Lt. David Black says that the video shows Timothy get out of the car and take a six year-old with him. Seconds later Anna, gets out of the car.

"She kept looking back at the vehicle, over her shoulder at the vehicle like there was something wrong or something they shouldn't be doing," added Lt. Black.

WFLA reports that the child's great-grandfather Joe Moldafsky thinks the arrest was unneeded for what he claims was an accident.

"I think it's ridiculous. Why did they put her in jail? Why didn't the police officer go in there over the announcer, the loud-speaker and she would've run right out there. That woman is taking care of those two children like nobody else would take care of them," said Moldafsky.

"The little one, she was perfectly fine last night," said Moldafsky.

The child was released into the custody of another family member. WFLA reports that DCF was contacted.