NJ Grandmother Charged with Leaving Infant, Dogs in Sweltering Car
BERKELEY — An observant deliveryman may have saved the lives of an infant girl and three dogs by calling police when he saw them in a parked car Thursday with the windows rolled up.
Police said the driver noticed the girl crying inside the car parked in a driveway of a house on Speightstown Place in the Holiday City section about 12:45 p.m. Thursday. The vehicle was not running and the outside temperature was 85 degrees.
A police officer removed the dogs and got the girl, who was drenched in sweat, into his air conditioned vehicle. The infant was taken to Community Medical Center and the Division of Child Protection and Permanency was notified.
Doreen Orlich, 52, of Toms River came out of the house and identified herself as the infant's grandmother. Orlich told police that she had left her granddaughter in the car while she was taking care of a friend's pets. Police did not say how long the girl was left in the car.
Orlich was charged with one count of fourth-degree cruelty or neglect of a child and three counts of fourth-degree animal cruelty. She has been released from custody.
AAA has warned that the inside of a car is much hotter than the outside temperature.
"A child's body heats up three to five times faster than an adult's body," AAA/Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Tracy Noble said. "On a 95-degree day, a car can heat up to over 180 degrees. And it only takes temperatures at 104 degrees for internal organs to start to shut down. So even in a matter of moments we can have a catastrophe on our hands."