Police: Babysitter left infant in car while she went shopping
NATCHITOCHES PARISH, LA (KSLA) - Police say the babysitter went shopping, leaving an infant alone in the back seat of her vehicle for more than a half hour.
The 10-month-old now is in good health and in the care of his mother.
As for the 41-year-old Natchitoches woman who was babysitting the child, she faces 1 count each of child desertion and cruelty to juveniles.
It was 2:12 p.m. May 13 when a citizen summoned police to the 300 block of South Drive in Natchitoches after hearing the infant crying in the back seat of a vehicle that was not running. It was a clear day and the National Weather Service said the outdoor temperature was 82 degrees at the time.
Jacqueline Procell told officers she does not normally babysit the infant and forgot him inside her vehicle while she was shopping in the Goodwill Industries store, according to a statement from Natchitoches police Detective John Greely. Officers reported having spoken with several Goodwill Industries workers who said Procell had been in the store for more than 30 minutes.
This all happened 2 days after a similar but unrelated and more tragic case caught national attention.
On May 11, a 2-year-old girl was found dead in her car seat in the the back seat of her mother's SUV at a Mississippi day care center.
The mother told authorities she was on the way home from work when she stopped at the daycare to pick up her child. When workers there told her she didn't drop off her child that morning, the woman became distraught, ran out to her SUV and realized her 2-year-old still was in the vehicle.
One study has found that even with an outside temperature of 82 degrees, a closed car can register 109 degrees inside.
Another study says temperatures in a closed car can rise by about 19 degrees in 10 minutes, 29 degrees in 20 minutes, 34 degrees in 30 minutes, 43 degrees in an hour and 50 degrees after a second hour.
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