Video shows mom leaving toddler in hot car while shopping at Walmart

KGO logo
Thursday, July 23, 2015
WATCH:  Mother leaves 2-year-old in 117-degree car
Surveillance footage shows 20-year-old Mikayla Peer leaving her 2-year-old in a car with temperatures higher than 100 degrees while she shopped for 20 minutes. (KNXV)

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Newly released video from Walmart surveillance cameras and police body cams show the panicked scene that unfolded after an Arizona mother left her toddler locked inside a scorching hot car while she went shopping.

Mikayla Peer, 20, admitted to leaving her 2-year-old in a hot car on purpose to go inside the store on July 4, ABC affiliate KNXV reports.

The child was only in the car for about half of the time the mom was in the store, as a good Samaritan called 911. The caller noted that the vehicle was not running and the windows were not cracked.

"Yeah, she's really, she's sweating a lot," the caller said when asked if the toddler was in distress.

Police can be heard saying the temperature in the vehicle was, on average, 111 to 113 degrees and 117 degrees in the hottest spots.

Police smashed a window to free the child from the car. The surveillance video shows Peer exiting the store several minutes later. She then walks casually up to the group gathered around her car, which includes police officers.

"If me and you were in a car, and you said, 'Hey, I'm gonna leave my kid in the car,' I'd be like, 'Dude, you're stupid,'" one officer can be heard saying in the video.

The temperature inside a car can reach 110 degrees even if it's just 60 degrees outside. On average, 37 children die of vehicular heat stroke each year, according to kidsandcars.org.

The toddler made a full recovery at a local hospital, according to ABC News. The mother is facing child abuse charges and is expected to appear in court on Friday.