A 7-year-old boy was rescued from a hot car earlier this week by police after his mother reportedly left him there as a form of punishment.
According to WSPA, a Horry County, South Carolina police officer was called to the area after a witness saw 25-year-old Destiney Leann Brogan drag the boy by his arm from the beach to the car. When the officer came upon the vehicle, he found the small child, who was still seated in the rear passenger seat of his mom’s car.
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All of the windows on the vehicle were closed, and at 1:32 p.m., the time the officer found the child, the temperature had reached 75-degrees. While beginning to rescue the child, the officer discovered that both of the car doors were unlocked.
As WSPA reports, the officer noted how hot it was inside the car when he opened the doors to retrieve the child. At the time, the child was reportedly “flushed and frightened,” and also appeared hesitant to talk to the police officer, who arrived ten minutes after the incident was reported.
The police officer admitted that the mom’s statement did not match what her child or the witness had told him.
“The victim had been sitting in the subject’s vehicle for at least that amount of time, and in the direct sunlight, making the inside of the vehicle noticeably hot,” the officer wrote in his report, according to WSPA.
The officer revealed that when the boy did start talking to him, he said that his mom was upset at him because he threw sand on another child. As a result, he was spanked and put into the car as punishment.
While the officer was still gathering information from the young boy, Brogan made her way back to her car. After asking the officer what was going on, she said that while she did spank the boy and walked him to the car, she never put him in the car. She said that she told the boy to walk back down to the beach when he was ready.
Brogan has since been charged with child abuse. As of May 4, the mom is still in custody.
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