Brandon, Manitoba — August 13, 2015 — The owner of a local towing company took matters into his own hands when rescuing an infant locked inside a parked car in Brandon earlier this week.
As reported by the Brandon Sun, when Full Tilt Towing and Transport Ltd.’s Jeff Hogg first arrived at a restaurant parking lot the afternoon of August 12, he made unsuccessful attempts to unlock the Honda CR-V’s doors before using a chain to smash the vehicle’s window to retrieve the 18-month-old boy.
“He was already starting to pass out so I just smashed the window out,” Hogg told the Sun. “By the time I got in there, he was pretty hot.”
Hogg was dispatched to the 1200-block of 18th Street location at around 3 p.m., at the time an ambulance was called to the scene.
The child, his mother and aunt had just left Applebee’s when the baby, strapped in a carseat, was inadvertently locked inside the vehicle, along with the car keys.
With the infant in distress, Hogg had no choice but to act quickly after his specialized device failed to unlock the doors–which kept locking automatically, even after the window was smashed–a snag he attributes to malfunctioning locks, which he believes may have also caused the incident.
The child was inside the car for an estimated 10 to 20 minutes, which could have felt closer to 43C in the in the 31C weather.
The infant was reported to be in good health, but was doused in water and taken to hospital as a precautionary measure, according to Brandon Fire and Emergency Services.
Hogg, however, walked away with an inch-long cut on his shin, which caught on the broken window when he climbed inside the vehicle to unbuckle and rescue the child.
