Irretrievably STUPID People...

Just got home, it's 3PM and about 110 degrees
outside--no exaggeration. We're having a really nasty heat wave and I
have to go out every hour and hose off the yard and the chickens. We
had gone out to the local party supply store to get some things for my
daughter's upcoming 6th birthday party. We came out and yippee skip,
the car won't start...

OK, call AAA, tell them it's really hot and we have a young child with
us, they say they'll hurry. Terrific. (I LOVE AAA). We see across
the parking lot a young woman with two kids and and older woman
standing next to a car. The older woman is one the phone, and they
have been since we got there, roughly 10 minutes before. We stand
around sweating...I take my daughter back inside the air conditioned
store to wait, watching out the front windows for the tow truck. DH
is rummaging in the trunk for the jumper cables.

After a few minutes I see him on his cell phone, grab the tire iron
out of our trunk and walk quickly across to where the women and kids and
standing by the SUV. I figure they've got a flat and DH is offering
to help, naturally. After another minute here comes AAA, so I go
outside to meet them. DH has headed the driver off and is directing
him to the women and kids, so I figure DH is going to get them taken
care of them first. No problem.

It turns out, THERE ARE TWO TODDLERS LOCKED IN THE CAR!!!
AARRGGGHHH!!! Every stinkin' year, we see news stories about kids who
die in very short order because their dumbshit parents leave them
locked in the car for 'just a minute' while they run into a store. My
DH had the tire iron because he was just about to break one of the
windows of the SUV! He was on the phone with 911, telling THEM what
was going on since the women HAD NOT! The AAA guy jumped out and
after quickly trying his lockpicking tool on several doors, was finally able to jimmy open one of the
locks. The kids inside had gotten so overheated by then that they had reached the stage where they had
stopped crying, were pale, bathed in sweat and listless. I was all ready to have to preform CPR on them. We told the
women to take the kids somewhere for a cold drink RIGHT NOW, so they
took them next door to the McDonalds. The older woman at least had
the sense to look shaken and was muttering, "Never again..." I also
told her NEVER again to leave the kids in the car like that, it's fatal!

We told the AAA guy he had without a doubt saved two lives that day,
and thanked him all over the place for being a hero. My husband let
911 know that all was well and the car was opened and the kids were
OK. I'm going to call AAA and praise the AAA driver.

I'm so damned mad I could spit. WHY those women had not had the sense
to let 911 know that they had little ones locked in a car on a hot day
for 20 minutes I'll never know. The cops would have been there in seconds. Or why they hadn't flagged down
ANYONE in the parking lot and asked for help. My husband had walked
over to them on his own when he saw them lean over and talk to someone
in the car! If that had been my kid I wouldn't even hesitate or wait
for AAA, I'd grab a rock and break a window immediately and chalk it
up to my own stupidity. But then I have never and WILL never leave my
kid alone in the car, not for a moment for any reason...I've always
been that way.

*whew* OK, I feel better now...but it turns out that my car needs a new alternator...