Child left in hot car while parents shopped at Home Depot in Seminole County

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Police in Casselberry arrested two parents accused of leaving their child in a hot car while they shopped at a Home Depot Sunday afternoon.

 Thankfully, Good Samaritans in the area were able to help get the boy out of the car, according to the Casselberry Police Department.

The child’s parents – Wengen Shi and Caijue Yuan – went inside the home improvement store located on South US Highway 17-92 off Seminola Boulevard and reportedly left the child in the car because the child was asleep, according to an arrest report.

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The car was turned off, locked and the windows were rolled up, police said. Officers said when they responded to the incident around 4:40 p.m., it was approximately 91 degrees outside.

Shoppers in the area first noticed the car when its alarm began going off, police said. A woman walked over to the car and found the boy inside trying to find a way to open the car door.

The woman began talking to him, trying to help him unlock the door – which went on for approximately 15 minutes, the report stated. 

(Photo via Seminole County Sheriff’s Office)

Eventually the child was able to get one of the car doors open.

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Police said his face was “flushed, red and sweaty” and that he was “drenched in sweat.”

Witnesses took the child into the store to get air conditioning and gave the child water to drink as they waited for paramedics and law enforcement to arrive. 

When officers spoke with the parents, Yuan, the boy’s mother, said she thought they were inside the store for approximately 10 minutes, the arrest report stated.

Both parents reportedly said the “employees were taking too long” when they were trying to check out, according to police. 

The parents were taken to the Seminole County Jail on a charge of child neglect.