2 Arrested After Toddler Left Alone in Vehicle

EAST WINDSOR, CT — A New Britain woman and her brother were arrested Monday night after the woman's 16-month-old daughter was found left alone in a vehicle in the Walmart parking lot on Route 5.

Around 6:30 p.m., the East Windsor Police Department was called to the store for a report of a child left in a vehicle unattended with the windows up. Police and East Windsor Ambulance personnel found the girl in the vehicle secured in a car seat. The doors were unlocked and the child, who was distressed and sweating profusely, was removed from the vehicle, police said, adding the external air temperature was noted to be approximately 81 degrees at the time of the incident.

The child was taken to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center for evaluation, and the Department of Children and Families sent personnel to the hospital to investigate the incident, police said.

Police were on scene for 45 minutes when two people came to the vehicle and the female, identified as Gloria Sanchez-Cerritos, 22, stated she was the child's mother and that she forgot the girl was in the vehicle. The other individual present was identified as Juan Sanchez-Cerritos, 30, brother to Gloria and uncle to the child, police said.

Both individuals were charged with risk of injury to a child, leaving a child unsupervised in a motor vehicle and first-degree reckless endangerment. They were each held on $100,000 bond, and are scheduled to appear Tuesday in Enfield Superior Court.

Photos courtesy of East Windsor Police Department