Woman arrested after ‘leaving grandchild in hot car’ while grocery shopping

A Florida woman has been arrested after she allegedly left her 2-year-old grandchild in a blistering hot car while grocery shopping, according to police.

Elena Grady, 63, was charged with neglect of a child causing great bodily harm after her grandchild was found unattended inside a scorching car in a Publix parking lot on Tuesday.

Volusia County sheriff’s deputies responded to the store at around 3 pm after store managers noticed a child alone in the parked car, police said.

In a statement on Facebook, the department said the child “appeared lethargic” inside the car, which was “parked in full sun, no shade, not running, with the windows cracked.”

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When the child was left in the car, it was a whopping 91 degrees outside, according to a heat index. The toddler was left alone in the car for around 16 minutes.

“Let’s avoid tragedy and remember NOT to leave children, pets, or vulnerable adults in a hot vehicle even if it’s only supposed to be a few minutes,” the Volusia Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook.

Grady was released after midnight on Wednesday after posting her $3,000 bond, jail records show.

It comes after a three-year-old girl died in a blisteringly hot car after her father forgot she was strapped in her car seat in the family driveway.

Toddler Charlotte Jones was staying off sick the day her father Scott had driven her and her sister to school for the usual drop-off. However, when Scott returned home with his poorly daughter still in the back of their car – he forgot she had not been left at school that morning.

Tragically, Scott logged on to work in his home office at the family’s Arizona home – where temperatures had soared to 98F (36C) – only realizing his precious daughter was still in the car when his wife called to check on them four hours later. In heartbreaking details, mum Angela recalled how her husband’s voice dropped on the phone when he realised his mistake.

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Angela said: “All of a sudden I could just hear a panic in his voice,” Angela Jones told Fox News Digital. She added: “I initially thought she had gotten into the pool or something like that, and then he was like, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t think I ever got her out of the car’. Then it hit him what has happening and he ran out into the driveway.”

Scott immediately called 911, but it was too late as it daughter had succumbed to the heat and died in the car. Janette Fennell, the founder of Kids and Car Safety, a group that compiles data on child hot car deaths says about 55% of child hot car deaths can be attributed to kids being unknowingly left in vehicles.