Irbid parents leave infants in car to go shopping

AMMAN — A three-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl were left unattended in a car in Irbid city on Monday in relatively hot temperatures as their parents went shopping, police said Tuesday.

Maj. Mohammad Sharif, from Amen FM, the Public Security Department’s (PSD) radio station, said the parents may be charged with cruelty to children as per the report prepared by the hospital where the children were taken after they went into coma while locked in the car. 

Sharif told The Jordan Times that officers from the PSD Family Protection Department and officials from the Ministry of Social Development investigated the incident, adding that the father, a military serviceman, will be referred to a military court, while the mother will be questioned at a civil court. 

The PSD officer said passers-by called the Civil Defence Department (CDD) to rescue the children. 

The CDD team arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, he added, and they had to break a car window to be able to open the vehicle and get the children out. 

The incident took place at around noon, Sharif noted. 

The police officer said eyewitnesses claimed that the children were left unattended in the car for over two hours, while the father insisted it was less than an hour. 

“But the shape the children were in indicates they were left inside the vehicle for more than an hour,” said Sharif, who was at the scene when the children were rescued.

He said the two children stayed at hospital until 10pm Monday and left with their parents after they received medical treatment. “They looked fine when they left the hospital.”