Cary shopper cited for leaving screaming baby in SUV
MORRISVILLE (WTVD) -- A Cary woman was cited Wednesday for leaving her baby unattended inside an SUV while she went shopping at a busy Morrisville shopping plaza.
Police were called to the Park West Village Shopping Center about 11:30 a.m. after angry shoppers heard the infant screaming inside the vehicle.
Shannon Perry was inside Carter's clothing store when emergency crews arrived and started asking questions.
"We were all pretty much in tears. We were shaking," she said.
Perry noticed the child's mother who was also shopping inside at the time.
"A lady jumped up and said 'Oh my god! Did they break my window?' She told her daughter to stay behind and hold her clothes, so she left the little girl in the store," Perry said.
Crews were able to free the infant.
Police say the child was not seriously hurt.
The mother was cited for leaving an unattended child in a motor vehicle.
An outraged Perry later posted about the ordeal in her mom's group on Facebook which has now been shared hundreds of time.
"I understand what it's like to be overwhelmed with a child, but the fact that you could leave your child in a car for almost 30 minutes while you go around shopping, for a child, the whole thing is just unbelievable, and you're in a store full of mothers," she said.
Perry hopes it serves as a warning to others as the temperature rises.
"It's only getting hotter outside. She was lucky that it wasn't any hotter outside because that child would have definitely suffocated in that car," Perry said.
