GOODYEAR, AZ (CBS NEWS/WBTW) – Newly-released body camera video shows the dramatic moment Arizona police officers rescued a baby left inside a hot car.
Stacy Holly was arrested in June after forgetting her five-month-old in a Target parking lot for nearly an hour.
The infant survived.
“We forgot her, I don’t know how we forgot her, but we just forgot her,” Holly said. “Honestly don’t know how it happened. I am freaking out. I’m sorry…I just don’t know how it happened like how do you forget your baby!”
Holly forgot the baby inside her car parked in the hot Arizona sun, while she shopped at a Target with her sister and 6-year-old daughter.
Surveillance video shows Holly walking inside the store. Then, nearly an hour later, she heads back to the car, where she realizes what’s happened and calls 911.
“We got lucky on this one man. Thirty minutes without it running. That’s a long time. It’s a little, little infant,” police officers can be heard saying on body camera video.
While the temperature outside was 100 degrees, inside a car, that number can jump to 134 degrees in just 30 minutes.
“I think that these people who do it, who you see on TV, oh my god how stupid are they to leave their kids in the car, and then it happened,” Holly said.
On average, 38 children die a year in hot cars in the United States, according to kidsandcars.org. So far this year, that number has it at least 35.
Holly is heard on tape thanking the police, calling her arrest “eye-opening.”
“Do you understand the seriousness of what happened,” an officer asked Holly. Holly replied “yes.” The officer then said “ok” and Holly said “1,000 percent.”
Congress is considering a law that would require new cars to have a warning system to remind drivers of back seat passengers. Some cars already have that technology.
Holly’s been charged with endangerment and reckless child abuse. She pleaded not guilty.
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