A couple looking after a 20-month-old girl were arrested at Shelley Beach on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast after leaving her in a locked car, police said on Tuesday.
Superintendent Zandra Hechter said bystanders in the parking lot of the Shelley Beach Shopping Mall on Monday heard a baby crying inside an Opel Corsa. The car was locked and the windows had been left slightly open.
Police officers managed to open the car door and retrieve the baby. The police officer who rescued the baby described the inside of the car as being ”like an inferno”, according to Hechter.
Paramedics stabilised the child and rehydrated her on the scene.
More than 20 minutes after the baby was removed the owners of the car returned. The couple, who are in their 40s, were looking after the child for their neighbours.
Hechter said the couple told the policeman they had not expected to ”be so long away from the car”.
The couple were arrested and are expected to appear shortly in the Port Sheptone Magistrate’s Court on charges of ill-treating a minor.
Hechter said: ”We see this offence in a serious light as anything could have occurred to the child while there was no supervision.” – Sapa