Four young children were left inside a car that reached a sweltering 125 degrees while their father spent nearly an hour inside a Phoenix sex shop, police said.
Ascencio Largo, 38, was booked on child abuse charges Thursday after cops responded to multiple calls of kids left unattended in the vehicle, which was off with the windows rolled up on a 104-degree July afternoon.
“Officers responded to a parking lot of a business near 24th Street and Madison Street regarding multiple children inside of a vehicle that was not running. When officers arrived, they located multiple children in the car. Officers were able to gain entry into the car and secure the children,” Phoenix Police said.
The temperature inside the car hit a sizzling 125 degrees, police said.
The kids — ages 2, 3, 4 and 7 — were all showing signs of heat distress, including skin discoloration and profuse sweating, Phoenix Police Sgt. Rob Scherer told Fox 10 Phoenix.
Police said their internal temperatures were all near 100 degrees.
They were all removed from the vehicle safely and immediately given water and placed in an air-conditioned police SUV to be brought to a local hospital, the outlet reported.
After the children were freed from the roasting car, police contacted Largo, who was taking his sweet time inside The Adult Shoppe, a sex shop featuring “an adult arcade with communal viewing theaters and private rooms, providing a unique and discreet environment for sexual exploration.”
Cops entered the store and “called out many times” with no response from Largo, Maricopa County Commissioner Jane McLaughlin said during his court appearance, calling the incident “shocking.”
McLaughlin said when he finally emerged, he attempted to pretend it wasn’t his car.
“It just indicates a strong level of reckless culpability of knowing. It’s difficult to say that anybody who grew up in Arizona doesn’t know that children and dogs die in closed cars,” she said.
Police also noticed alcohol on Largo’s breath and said his driver’s license had an ignition interlock requirement in place, but the vehicle did not have one installed.
He was jailed on four counts of child abuse and four counts of endangerment.
Tragically, hot car deaths are not uncommon in the US, particularly as the mercury rises during the summer months.
According to the National Safety Council, 37 children under age 15 die each year from heatstroke after being left inside a hot car, with a record 53 deaths recorded in 2018 and 2019.
Last month, a 9-year-old girl died when her mother left her in a car with the windows cracked to work an eight-hour shift in Texas, when temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees.
This past weekend, a 3-year-old boy died in Alabama after a child protective services worker left him in a scorching car after leaving a supervised visit with his father.
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