Supermarket worker saves child locked inside car in 93-degree heat

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A supermarket worker is being praised for his quick actions in rescuing a child from a hot van.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones was in DeKalb County Friday, where the worker, Garey Sanford, said he knew he had to act fast.

Sanford works at the Kroger on North Decatur Road.

On Sunday at around 5:30 pm., he noticed a child around the age of three in distress inside a locked van while he was retrieving shopping carts. Temperatures that evening were around 93 degrees.

Paramedics said it was even hotter inside the van at around 127 degrees.

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Sanford said he knew he had to act fast when he saw the baby was sweating and in distress inside the vehicle.

“Well, the baby had got out the car seat and now is in the seat and can barely stand up in the seat,” Sanford said. “So the baby was just reaching for any kind of help. Any kind of help. Just trying to get out the car.”

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Sanford said he checked the doors and they were all locked. He said the child’s parents were nowhere to be found.

“I wouldn’t leave a plant, let alone a pet or a person in a hot car,” Sanford said.

Sanford said he thought about breaking the window, but he thought he might lose his job, so he screamed for help.

A man came over and used a hammer to break the van’s window.

Paramedics took the baby to the hospital for observation.

Two adults were cited for creating a hazardous condition and released.

Jones went by their apartment to get their side of the story, but the woman who answered the door said she didn’t speak English.

The family told police they were only inside shopping for 20 minutes. Sanford said it was more like an hour, and even twenty minutes is too long in that kind of heat.

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