PETALING JAYA, June 12 — Police have recorded the statement of a young mother who was widely criticised for leaving her child inside a locked car on June 1.
Selangor CID chief Datuk Mohd Adnan Abdullah said police located the mother after a 100-second long video showing concerned passers-by attempting to save the child went viral on Facebook the same day.
“Following investigations, we obtained the woman’s home address and recorded her statement on June 5.
“We also interviewed the woman’s family members to establish to what the extent the mother has neglected the child,” he said.
Adnan said investigations are ongoing and if any elements of neglect were found, the woman could be charged under the Child Act 2001.
Police initiated investigations last week after the video went viral on social media and police were urged to investigate the incident.
During the 1.20pm incident, passers-by were shocked when they saw a perspiring and restless baby locked up in a Perodua Myvi for more than 20 minutes.
Over 20 people came to the child’s rescue, with many attempting to open the door.
One rescuer used an iron rod to pry open the front left window panel while another smashed the right rear window, opened the door and took the child, who was in the passenger seat, to safety.
The women in the group quickly took the child to cool off in a nearby office.
Minutes later, the mother emerged from a nearby office and claimed the child when the drama was over.
Statements recorded from witnesses indicated that the mother had left the child locked in the car outside Wisma Converter in Section 9, Shah Alam, “for a while” as she attended to some errands.
Since 2013, at least six cases have been reported nationwide, receiving wide media coverage and prompting calls from various quarters to charge careless parents for negligence.
Among them was the case of a five-year-old boy who was found dead in his mother’s multi-purpose vehicle after he was left inside for six and a half hours on June 19, 2013.
