Crime & Safety
Officer Tells Of Rescuing Toddler From Hot Car: Report
Sheriff's officer smashed a window to get the crying child out of a hot car in a Costco parking lot Thursday afternoon.
Bergen County Sheriff’s Officer Rich Carrion was setting up a road block in Hackensack when a Costco employee ran towards him.
A toddler was trapped inside a hot car in the parking lot.
Immediately, Carrion ran to the vehicle, smashed the passenger’s side window, and opened the door, freeing the child. Carrion’s colleague, Officer Sonya Bekier picked the boy up, NorthJersey.com reported.
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A online video of the incident went viral online Thursday and Friday.
The child’s mother, Chaeyoung Lim-Kim, 42, came out of the store with a full shopping cart and another child with her.
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“You left him in the car!” Carrion yelled, the website reported.
“Sorry, sorry,” Lim-Kim said.
“No sorry,” Bekier said. “She could have died!”
Lim-Kim was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
A Costco employee, The Record reported, estimated that the child was trapped inside the car for more than 30 minutes.
The child was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center to be evaluated and for precautionary dehydration treatment, The Record reported. He was later released to his father’s custody, Anthony Cureton, a spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office told the paper.
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