Police: Woman Left Toddler Inside Hot Car

Another woman has been arrested for allegedly leaving a toddler inside a parked car over the weekend.

Detectives with the Sandy Springs Police Department have charged Melissa Mae Jackson, 39, of Marietta with reckless conduct in connection to the incident, which occurred Sunday, July 13 in the parking lot of Lowe's at 5925 Roswell Road.  

Jackson allegedly left the little girl inside a 2007 Toyota Camry — with the windows rolled up and the engine off — during the early afternoon hours. Temperatures on that day reached the mid-80s, according to Sandy Springs police.

Witnesses called Sandy Springs police after seeing the child in the car. According to an incident report released by the agency, the couple who called police said the child, who was crying, had her hands pressed against the window and was not strapped into the car seat that was on the rear passenger side of the vehicle. 

The couple went inside the home improvement store to speak to customer service about the issue and tried to locate the parent of the child.

Witnesses said a woman standing in the customer service area exited the store, walked to the vehicle, got the child out of the car and came back into the store.

Once the woman returned in the store with the child, the witnesses said they confronted the woman about the incident. They told police the woman said "don't tell me how to parent" and left the store, the report states.

Jackson left the store before police arrived onto the scene.

She was contacted by Sandy Springs police about the incident "and surrendered to detectives," the agency said.

Cobb County's Department of Family and Children Services is also investigating the case. 

This latest incident comes comes on the heels of other reports this summer of kids being left in hot cars in Georgia, the most tragic being the June 18 death of 2-year-old Cooper Harris in Cobb County. The boy died in the car as his father Justin Ross Harris worked all day. Justin Harris has been charged with felony murder.

This week, Courtney Kidd was charged after he left his 3-month-old daughter in his parked car at the Clayton County courthouse. A Good Samaritan reportedly rescued the child. Kidd mistakenly thought babies could not be brought into the courthouse.

An Atlanta mother was also charged with four counts of reckless conduct after leaving her four children inside a parked car in the parking lot of Walmart on Jimmy Carter Boulevard.