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Crime & Safety

Toddler Rescued from Hot Car, Mother Arrested

The mother of the 1-year-old is being booked, police say.

A 26-year-old mother who allegedly left her 1-year-old daughter inside a car while she went grocery shopping in North Hollywood - - where temperatures were soaring above 100 degrees -- was arrested today and the child was rescued from the vehicle.

Police were called around 1:30 p.m. to a Ralphs grocery store parking lot in the 10900 block of Magnolia Boulevard on a report of a child inside a blue Nissan with the windows rolled up, according to Los Angeles police Officer Norma Eisenman.

The doors of the vehicle were unlocked, Eisenman said.

Brian Humphrey of the city Fire Department said the 1-year-old girl was taken to a hospital in good condition. He noted that the car's air conditioning was apparently on, but it wasn't cooling the interior of the vehicle.

The child's mother was found a short time later and arrested on suspicion of child endangerment, Eisenman said. Her name was not immediately released.

According to ABC7, witnesses told police the woman had parked her car in a red zone in front of the store and gone inside, then came out once to check on the child before going back into the store.

"It was a clear choice, LAPD Officer Robert Benavidez told Channel 7. "The car was running, parked in the red zone. And to be honest with you, when we were out there at the scene, she was kind of giving us the impression that she didn't really understand why we were there or what she had done wrong."

The station reported that police went to the woman's home and took her young son, believed to be elementary-school aged. Both children were expected to be turned over to Child Protective Services, the station reported.

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