A Woman Saw a Child in a Hot Car and Decided to Step In by Smashing the Window

Kristy Scales was in a Kansas shopping center parking lot on Saturday when she heard people screaming and saw crowding around a vehicle — a 2-year-old was locked in the car.

She immediately ran closer to the car, which had the windows rolled up and started recording a woman who was swinging at the driver's window with a tire iron. The woman, Sarah Oropeza, took about three minutes to get the window open and the child out.

"I was thinking when I was hitting the window, 'What if she dies?'" she later said. "'What if I can't get her out? What's going to happen? What are we going to do?' I just did what I thought was right — just hit the window until it broke."

The police ticketed the child's caregivers, and criminal charges may be on the way.

So far this year, 10 children have died due to being left behind in hot vehicles. "I want people to see that it's OK to step in and help — you should step in and help," says Oropeza. Thanks to her taking action, the toll hasn't risen to 11, however, the incidents seem to keep occurring, despite the news coverage — so please, even if it takes longer to get your child out of their seat than you'd even be out of the car, take them out of the car every time.