HANOVER TOWNSHIP — Hanover Township Police Sergeant Vitanza and Officers Byrnes and Acquaro responded to Wegmans at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 5, on a report of two children left locked in a vehicle that was not running with outside temperatures still above 90 degrees.
Responding officers arrived and located a six-year-old developmentally disabled male child and a four-year-old female child locked in the car sweating profusely and crying.
Officers managed to gain access to the vehicle and provided the children with cold water to drink and respite from the heat in their patrol vehicles.
Officers made several announcements within the store and after approximately twenty minutes the children’s father emerged from the store. The investigation revealed, through surveillance video, that the father locked the children in the car while he shopped for over 45 minutes in the store.
The children were turned over to their mother and their father was placed into custody. Charges are pending.
Editor’s Note: An arrest or the signing of a criminal complaint is merely an accusation. Despite this accusation, the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until he or she has been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
