Kingston Police and Frontenac Paramedics are reminding people to not leave children and pets unattended in a vehicle after a rescue in Kingston yesterday.
According to The Kingstonist, an alert passerby called 911 after they spotted a young child locked inside a van at the Wal-Mart on Midland Ave .
Emergency officials were called around 2:20 p.m. and found the child in obvious emotional distress and crying loudly, prompting responders to break one of the rear windows of the van and remove the child from the vehicle.
Outside temperatures at the time were in the mid-twenties Celsius.
It is not known how long the child had been in the vehicle, several shoppers noted that lines inside the store were long and that checkouts were taking about thirty minutes. Multiple attempts were made to reach the owners of the vehicle via the store’s public announcement system, but were unsuccessful.
The toddler, which appeared to be between one and two years of age, was alert and responsive when removed from the vehicle, and was taken to hospital for observation.
A young male and female identifying themselves as the parents of the child arrived at the vehicle approximately 15 minutes after the child had been transported by EMS.
They were then escorted to hospital by Kingston Police and a social worker.
