Babies left in sweltering car as dad drinks
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Winnipeg Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/08/2009 (5882 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
VANCOUVER — Two sweat-drenched B.C. babies were rushed to hospital early Saturday after being found in soiled diapers, locked in a minivan for several hours while their father was spotted drinking at a nearby saloon.
“I think they could have died — there are so many things that could have happened to them,” Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said on Saturday. “This is an extreme example of what you would classify as ignorance — it’s common sense you wouldn’t leave kids in a car even for several minutes. It’s appalling.”
The children — aged four months and two years — were apprehended by Ministry for Children and Family Development officials after being treated for dehydration at hospital.
Their last reported condition was stable.
MacDonald said uniformed members stationed outside the Fat Pig Saloon — a temporary bar set up at the annual Abbotsford Agrifair and Rodeo — were alerted by a distraught woman, who said she heard a man in the bar telling others he had to check on his children at about 12:30 a.m.
Officers followed the man to a minivan parked in a nearby lot where they made the shocking discovery and called paramedics.
“He opens up the minivan and all they can hear is the wails of the two kids,” MacDonald said. “Our members can see the kids are in distress and have soiled themselves. All the (van’s) windows were shut and the van was locked.”
Local freelance videographer Kevin MacDonald shot footage of a police officer holding the screaming four-month-old in his arms and a paramedic attended to the other distraught tot.
“It was probably the most disturbing story I have ever covered,” Kevin Macdonald told radio station CKNW. “It looked like the kids had been in there a very long time. Both the kids were drenched in sweat.”
Police suspect the kids were inside the van for hours.
“Based on our conversations with the male and patrons of the saloon, we formed the opinion that the kids had been there for several hours,” MacDonald said.
According to Environment Canada, the temperature in Abbotsford at 5 p.m. was 29 C and went down to 20 C by the time the kids were found. Abbotsford is just east of Vancouver.
— Canwest News Service