Woman Left Kids In 140-Degree Car In Secaucus, Police Say

SECAUCUS, NJ — Secaucus police say a Paterson woman went shopping inside the Restaurant Depot in Secaucus on Friday afternoon, and left two young girls, ages 4 and 2, inside a parked car that registered at 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

At 4:05 p.m. Friday, June 12 a passerby saw the girls crying inside the car and called 911.

Secaucus firefighters responded and they were able to open the locked car doors using special tools, said Secaucus volunteer Fire Chief Carl Leppin, who was the second to respond to the scene Friday.

She had left a rear window partially opened, said Leppin.

"We used a thermal imaging camera that we usually use for house fires and tested the dashboard: It was 140 degrees," he said. "There were two young girls. They were hot. We gave them cold water and we gave them stuffed animals to calm them down. We keep stuffed animals in the fire trucks for incidents like this."

The girls did not require further medical treatment.

Yamelth Olivo-Rodriguez, 23, of Paterson was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. She was released by the police; the girls were taken into protective custody by the state.

She had been inside shopping at the Restaurant Depot, said Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller.

She was arrested when she came out to her car; Miller said she had been in the store for 25 minutes before returning to the car.