Boy left in car for 'chocs and smokes'
2009-12-20 22:48
Bloemfontein - The mother who allegedly left her two-year-old son in her car in scorching heat in Bloemfontein, while she went to buy "chocolates and cigarettes", is a nurse at a private hospital in the city.
The 28-year-old woman issued a statement to police on Saturday from her house in the city. A complaint of child neglect is being investigated against her, while the incident will also be reported to social services.
The police are urgently looking for a male witness who stated at the scene that she'd been gone for at least half an hour, while the little boy was apparently locked in the car while the temperature was 35 degrees Celsius.
The woman allegedly admitted to being the mother of the child in the car, but insists that she "was only gone for 10 minutes to buy chocolates and cigarettes" while the child was asleep in the car.
Inspector Richard Botha from the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit of the Parkway police station tracked her down.
He says when he found the woman late on Friday after an intensive search - aggravated because the car was incorrectly registered - she was extremely emotional, traumatised and overwhelmed with remorse.
Botha returned to their house on Saturday to take down her statement. He told her that a three-year-old boy who'd been left in a car in the city earlier that night while the parents were gambling, was taken away from the parents.
"The dad and the little boy were there. The dad was very upset. It's quite a normal, stable family. She's well groomed and the little boy is delightful and well groomed. The house is in a good complex. That's why I find it so ironic if you look at their setup and her behaviour," he said.
She said her behaviour when the boy was left in the car had been "totally irrational" and that she doesn't know why she did something that she normally would never have done. She said she loves her son very much.
Botha also found the two police officials who'd been at the scene. According to them the child was already out of the car and in the mother's hands when they arrived at the scene.
Witnesses had earlier told Volksblad that the boy was hysterical when he was found on the back seat of the car at the Hyperama's parking terrain on Reconcilliation Day. It also looked like his nose was bleeding.
None of the car's windows were open, while the temperature in an
adjacent car showed that it was 35 degrees Celsius shortly before 13:00.
The key witness whom Botha is looking for is a coloured or Indian man in his twenties. He's tall and slim with black hair and is clean-shaven. Anyone with further information can phone Inspector Botha at 083 697 0982.