COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County mother and father have been arrested and charged after leaving their two children in a hot car while they went grocery shopping.
Channel 2′s Michele Newell confronted the father Friday to ask him why the couple left the kids in the car.
He told Newell he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. Pallavarajan Jayachandran claims the car was already cold because they were driving for a while before they stopped to get groceries.
He turned the car off and kept the windows up.
Firefighters had to use an unlock kit just to get the children out of the hot car.
It was 82 degrees outside when police say the couple left their two children inside of a car, while they went grocery shopping at an Aldi in Smyrna.
“I wouldn’t want to leave a puppy in a car much less a child,” shopper Raymond Bittle said when he learned what happened.
Police said the car was turned off and the windows were rolled up.
“There was a customer who let one of my co-workers know that there’s was two little kids,” Aldi employee Cinthia Sanchez said. “When my co-worker … when she knew about it she like ran to the car tried to see the kids.”
Firefighters used an unlock kit just to get the children out. Police say they were in the car for at least 20 minutes.
The parents were charged.
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Newell went up to their house Friday to question them about what happened.
“Both of you are charged with reckless conduct. What’s your response to that?” Newell asked the couple.
“We didn’t do anything intentionally we don’t want to hurt our child,” Jayachandran said.
“Were you aware that it was 82 degrees that day sir?” Newell asked Jayachandran.
“It was not like that. We didn’t feel that actually,” Jayachandran said.
Jayachandran said the car was cold before they parked at Aldi. He says his 9-year-old was with his 3-year-old daughter who was asleep.
“My son was there. I gave him my phone. My wife’s phone. I asked him to call me if it was getting a little hotter,” Jayachandran said.
He claims he turned the engine off because his son was cold.
“He said like it’s so cold that he doesn’t want the AC to be turned on,” Jayachandran said.
“Why couldn’t one parent stay in the car with the kids?” Newell asked Jayachandran.
“She wanted to stay there and then she said like, ‘I’ll come in quickly,’” Jayachandran said.
Even after all four doors were left open for about 20 minutes after firefighters got the children out, a device they used to check the temperature of the inside of the car was well over 100 degrees.
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