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Passerby alerts police after spotting distressed toddler inside sun-baked SUV

A mother who left her three-year-old girl locked inside an SUV in the hot sun came back to find police waiting. A man passing by noticed the child in distress inside the Ford Escape, parked in the 100-block of Obed Ave. Wednesday afternoon. The man called police around 5:30 p.m., as the temperature hovered around 25 C.

A mother who left her three-year-old girl locked inside an SUV in the hot sun came back to find police waiting. A man passing by noticed the child in distress inside the Ford Escape, parked in the 100-block of Obed Ave. Wednesday afternoon. The man called police around 5:30 p.m., as the temperature hovered around 25 C.

An officer was able to reach his baton through the slight crack in the window and unlock the door. Police estimate the girl was left alone in the car for 30 minutes.

As the child was being removed from the vehicle, her 31-year-old mother, a Victoria resident, arrived.

The child was checked on by the B.C. Ambulance Service.

The investigation was turned over to the Ministry of Children and Families, and the child was left with another family member.

"The public is reminded that leaving children or animals in a locked vehicle in the sun is not appropriate,” Sgt. Dean Jantzen said. “The internal temperature of a vehicle left in the sun can be well beyond the outside temperature. Situations like this one could be investigated as negligence contrary to the Criminal code."

kslavin@saanichnews.com