Props to DCFD, Again! “A mom accidentally locked her baby in the car in a hot afternoon!”

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by Prince Of Petworth June 17, 2016 at 2:30 pm 14 Comments

locked

“Dear PoPville,

Big excitement outside SpaLogic in Dupont circle today. A mom accidentally locked her baby in the car in a hot afternoon! 911 was called and they got the baby out safely without even breaking a window! The sweet spa employees brought out cold water to mom and baby and invited them indie to sit in the AC and cool down after. Happy ending for all!”

textdoc

Glad to hear it all worked out so well!
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And in case there are any condemnatory types here about to post “How could she forget her baby in the car??”… please read Gene Weingarten’s thoughftul piece “Fatal Distraction”:
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
- ANC
  
  That is a great and terrifying article.
  
  And any condemnatory types can go pound sand. I have had it up to here this week with the internet’s armchair parenting.
  - HaileUnlikely
    
    Great article indeed. The author won a Pulitzer for it.
    - Anon for This
      
      I think that’s the only article I’ve ever read that made me completely change my opinion on a subject. I’m always showing it to people and bragging that the author lives on my block!
      - textdoc
        
        Gene Weingarten is your neighbor?? I envy you.
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        Well, maybe not completely — he’s written that he frequently bumps adjoining cars when getting into or out of a parallel parking spot. ;)
      - Anon for This
        
        Ha– I honestly wouldn’t care if my car got bumped.
        But yeah, I see him out every now and then with his dog. The first few years I lived near Eastern Market I thought he looked soooo familiar and couldn’t place him. Then there was an article specifically about him, with a big photo, and I made the connection.
      - TBD
        
        +1, this article completely changed my mind on the subject. I started it in a state of righteous indignation and by the end was thinking “there but for the grace of god go I”. It also made me realize there are probably many other circumstances where I shouldn’t be so quick to judge the people involved because I don’t know as much as I think I do.
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        I highly, highly recommend everyone read this article.
Cleo42

The WaPo article is great but this seems like a situation where some own locked their keys in the car with their kid, not forgot their kid in the car.
- anon
  
  yes, different situation entirely here. (not that I don’t have sympathy for those like in the article who drive to work and forget they didn’t drop the kid off)
- HaileUnlikely
  
  Yes, I have seen people do this on multiple occasions – exit the car, walk to the back seat to get their small child out, find that the back door is locked, reach for their keys, realize their keys aren’t there, go back to the front door to try to open it, find that it is also locked, see the keys dangling from the ignition, and proceed to freak the hell out.
  - K
    
    I definitely did this. Got out of car and without thinking hit the lock button and closed door. Walked to back door to get the twins out and realized all the doors were locked. Luckily the time I did it I was in my own driveway. I think I screamed like a crazy person until my husband heard and came out with his set of keys.
  - Honey Badger
    
    This is why I love my old school 2001 Honda Civic. It’s impossible to lock your keys inside. If you hit the lock button in the car, it locks all of the doors except the driver’s. You have to lock that one with the key in the lock. Sure, it’s completely low tech, but I never lock my keys in the car.
  - cavinthecity
    
    I did this with my Dog in the car in front of Union Vet on a hot summer day. I franticly called my Mechanic (Distads) and they came right over. They used a slim Jim and opened it in 2 seconds and didn’t charge me – I love these guys for this and many other resons (and they were alwys so nice to my crazy old dog)!
- textdoc
  
  Hmm… the OP doesn’t say anything about keys, but re-reading the post, I can see that it could’ve well been the case and the OP just didn’t explicitly say so (“Woman accidentally locked herself out of car WITH baby inside, someone called 911, and the cops opened a door to get the baby out and enable the woman to retrieve her keys”).

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