WATCH: Hertz car rental employees find toddler left in returned vehicle in Florida
VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL (WWAY) — Employees at a car rental lot at Daytona Beach International Airport discovered a toddler who was left in the back seat of a returned vehicle for about 45 minutes Monday evening.
According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, the child was scared and hot, but in good health when checked by paramedics.
It happened around 6 p.m. on Monday. Deputies working at the airport responded after a Hertz employee reported the toddler was found in the locked vehicle.
Deputies arrived to find the employee carrying the child, whose face was warm and streaked with dried tears, but was breathing normally.
The vehicle had been returned at 5:13 p.m. Deputies and airport staff initially were unable to make contact with the driver. The child’s mother then called, who had just learned her father had left her daughter in the rental car – not at his home, as he’d told her.
The mother was reunited with her child, who is just under the age of 2.
Detectives confirmed that David Towner, 62, of Port Orange had been babysitting his granddaughter for the day and left her in the rental vehicle when he returned it. Deputies say Towner was remorseful and cooperative. He was charged with one count of child neglect and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail.
The temperature in the unshaded parking lot at the time of the incident was about 80 degrees.
The Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident. The Hertz employees will receive citizen’s awards from the sheriff’s office.
