Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.
A woman was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with leaving her two children in a parked car in a northeast Las Vegas strip mall on what the National Weather Service said was the hottest day of the year.
Tina S. Taylor, 31, was arrested around 4:30 p.m. on two counts of child endangerment, Metro Police said.
The children, a 2-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, were left unattended inside a maroon Buick LeSabre, parked in front of a Factory 2-U store at 141 N. Nellis Blvd., near Charleston Boulevard, with the windows rolled up for about 45 minutes, Metro Lt. Les Lane said.
Monday's high was 109, the hottest temperature recorded in the Las Vegas Valley this year, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures inside a sun-baked vehicle can rise as much as 30 degrees higher than the outside temperature, authorities have said.
Witnesses told police they saw Taylor leave the car with the children inside and go shopping at the Factory 2-U store for about 10 minutes. She came back out to the car but it wouldn't start.
Taylor again left the children alone inside the vehicle and walked to a nearby gas station, police said. Witnesses saw her return to the car 20 minutes later with a gas can.
"She filled up her gas tank and then got in her car," Green Valley Security Officer Jeremy Cauley said. "When it still wouldn't start, she left again for another 10 to 15 minutes."
A Factory 2-U store clerk, who had been watching from a store window, called police and pulled the children out of the unlocked car.
Police and ambulances arrived to find the children pale, shivering and soaked in sweat.
"The kids looked like they had a 5-gallon bucket of water thrown on each of them," Cauley said.
Police took the children inside the air conditioned store and gave them water, Lane said. The boy complained of a headache and said he felt sick, police said.
The girl, while shivering and appearing pale, was otherwise OK, Cauley said. "She was lucky," he said. "It was extremely hot today."
After receiving medical treatment, the children were transported to Child Haven to spend the night, police said. Child Haven is a part of the Clark County Department of Family Services and provides temporary care and treatment for abused, neglected and abandoned children.
Taylor was being held this morning in the Clark County Detention Center on $6,000 bail. She faces a court hearing Wednesday morning.
Cauley said this isn't the first time he has seen children left unattended inside vehicles at the same strip mall.
"I'd say in the past year or so I've seen at least six children locked inside hot cars and another four children wandering around the parking lot after their parents left them in the car," he said. "It's pretty crazy that parents could do that, but it happens all the time."
Metro and other authorities have issued public awareness campaigns letting parents know it doesn't take much for children to become unconscious or die from the heat, but not everyone seems to be getting the message, Officer Jose Montoya, a Metro spokesman, said.
"I don't know what more we can do," he said, adding that parents should already know not to leave their children in hot vehicles. "Common sense should take over."
Taylor's car had tinted windows, but Las Vegas Fire and Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said that's no defense against the heat when the car's engine is off.
Tinted windows are effective when the car is moving and the air conditioning is running, he said. But when the car is stationary, the tint absorbs heat and drives up the temperature inside the car.
Last year Las Vegas Fire and Rescue responded to 596 calls about children left alone in vehicles. As of this morning, they had responded to 297 such calls, Szymanski said.
Sean Gromoll, 25, was arrested in May on charges of leaving his 5-year-old daughter and 5-week-old son inside a sport-utility vehicle while he was shopping for a television in Henderson.
Another parent, Kathy Lizanne Lawson, 28, pleaded guilty June 25 to one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct after leaving her 8-month-old twins in her car while she went shopping at a Burlington Coat Factory in Las Vegas in late April.
That same week Maria Guadalupe Avila was charged with leaving her 2-year-old daughter alone in the car at Costco on Marks Street, just down the street from the Wal-Mart where Gromoll allegedly left his children.
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