Girls, 4 and 7, Rescued From Hot Car in Hiram

HIRAM, GA — A Dallas woman is charged with two counts of child cruelty after leaving her daughters in a hot car at the Walmart in Hiram, according to police.

Hiram Police were called to the Walmart at 4166 Jimmy Lee Smith Hwy. on Saturday in reference to two small children left unattended in a locked car.

They arrived to find two girls, ages 4 and 7, inside a blue Hyundai Sonata. The windows were rolled up and the car was not running.

The girls "were in obvious distress and were sweating profusely," according to a police news release.

Hiram Sgt. Jesse Dunbar was able to talk one of the girls through unlocking a door so the girls were able to get out of the hot vehicle, the release said.

Outside temperatures were about 81 degrees at the time, police said, and the car's interior was estimated at about 100 degrees.

Via Walmart surveillance video, police learned that Ashley Lee, 34, of Dallas, arrived at the store at 12:35 p.m. and returned to the parking lot with groceries at about 1 p.m.

Lee was taken into custody and booked at Paulding County Jail. The children received a physical check-up and were released to the custody of a family friend.

"Police credit witnesses who called 911 for the safety of these children ...," Hiram Police Sgt. Stephen Johnson said in the news release. "So far in 2016 there have been 36 hot car deaths according to http://noheatstroke.org/ and we are proud this incident did not add to those unsettling numbers."

Photo courtesy Hiram Police Department