A high-ranking police official was placed on indefinite leave for ditching her toddler inside a car on a summer day to go fishing.
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Mayde McGuire, a Nebraska police captain, and her partner, Mary Tobiassen, allegedly visited Lincoln's Pawnee Lake for an evening of fishing on Sunday.
While the duo was fishing, bystanders grew concerned about the toddler locked in the car and called the police.
Police Captain Punished For Abandoning Child
The 2-year-old was taken out of the car by the time police arrived, but Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner still issued a stern warning to McGuire about the dangers of leaving children inside hot vehicles.
"We just can't emphasize enough how quickly the interior of a vehicle can get extremely hot. Even on a 78-degree day, which is pretty pleasant for us outdoors," Wagner told reporters.
"Inside a vehicle, it gets extremely hot, extremely quick. So children just cannot be left inside a vehicle at this time of year."
Tobiassen and McGuire were charged with misdemeanor child abuse. Furthermore, McGuire was cited and placed on leave from the Lincoln Police Department.
Dozens of Children Die Annually Inside Locked Vehicles
Tragically, nearly 40 children die in hot cars every year in the US on average. The vast majority of children who have died in hot cars are age 3 or younger, according to a fact sheet from Kids and Cars.
Such was the case in June when a father, who believed he dropped his child off at daycare, left his 23-month-old son in a sweltering vehicle for several hours.
The child was found dead inside an SUV outside A World of Discovery Academy. Temperatures in Plantation reached a high of 94 degrees that day. The afternoon heat index was 102 degrees, according to AccuWeather.
The Plantation Police Department and Plantation Fire Department responded to a report of an unresponsive child inside a vehicle at the daycare.
Firefighters pronounced the child dead at the scene.
Leslie Novoa, the academy's director, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that she knew the family and the child well.
"This is a tragedy that happened to them and to all of us," she said.
The child was a toddler who attended the school. He had an older sibling who also attended. The family had been with the daycare center for six years, Novoa told the outlet.
