Woman Breaks Toddler Out Of Hot Car In Dramatic Footage

Police said the outside temperature was 91 degrees.

A Kansas woman was caught on camera Saturday breaking a car window with a tire iron to rescue a 2-year-old girl trapped inside the hot vehicle.

“The windows were totally rolled up, all the doors were locked. She was covered in sweat,” Sarah Oropeza, manager of a Famous Footwear store in the city of Merriam, told KCTV-5.

The outside temperature was 91 degrees that day, according to a statement by Merriam police.

Oropeza said one of her employees, 16-year-old Porscha Bland, came running into the store from the parking lot yelling for help after seeing the toddler in the car. Bland and Oropeza said they attempted to break the window with a chair, and then a passerby tried to get the door open with a screwdriver, but all to no avail.

“I was just praying, ‘Break the window. She is going to die,’” Oropeza said.

Finally, Oropeza used a tire iron to crack the window, and another nearby woman helped out by throwing a truck hitch at the glass. After about three minutes, the glass broke and the little girl was freed from the car.

“They got the baby out and all you could see was her ponytail and sweat coming from the end,” Kristy Scales, who filmed the incident, told Fox 4.

A nurse who happened to be in the parking lot cared for the child until paramedics arrived.

Oropeza told KCTV that a couple claiming to be the child’s aunt and uncle ultimately came into the shoe store to get the child back. According to the police statement, the couple watching the girl said she was only alone for four minutes.

A representative from the Johnson County district attorney’s office told ABC News that the case is under review, and officials haven’t determined whether charges will be filed.

UPDATE: July 23 -- Siblings Mylesha Anderson, 24, and Marques Anderson, 23, have each been charged with aggravated child endangerment in connection with the incident, Fox 4 reports. Officials say the child left inside the car was their niece.

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