Dad left young kids in 125-degree car for an hour while in adult shop, AZ cops say
.png "The Adult Shoppe in Phoenix is pictured. A dad is accused of leaving his kids in a hot car near the business, police said.")
A 38-year-old man is accused of leaving his young kids alone in a 125-degree car for nearly an hour while he shopped in an adult store in Arizona, police said.
Police received a call about the children at about 3:40 p.m. July 24 near The Adult Shoppe, the Phoenix Police Department said in news release and confirmed to McClatchy News by email. The kids were ages 2, 3, 4 and 7.
The temperature in Phoenix reached 106 degrees that day, according to AccuWeather.
One of the four kids was found outside the vehicle trying to get help, police said. Someone called 911.
Police looked in the car and saw two crying children in the backseat who looked “extremely sweaty,” authorities said in a probable cause document. A third child was also seen in the car.
The children had been left in a car that was turned off with the windows rolled up, police said.
At the time they were found in the car, the inside temperature was 125 degrees, police said.
Police said they took the internal temperature of the kids, and it read near 100 degrees for each of them.
The children were given water and put in a police patrol vehicle to cool down in the air conditioning before being taken to a hospital for heat issues, police said.
“All are expected to be fine,” police said in the release.
Police said they tried looking for the children’s parent and had the adult store make announcements inside, but no one claimed the kids.
The dad walked out of the adult shop’s back door about five minutes later and “shook his head no” when police asked if the vehicle was his, authorities said in the documents.
He was arrested on four counts of child abuse and four counts of endangerment.
“The police allege that they went into the store, called out many times. Nobody came out. And they allege that when you came out, you attempted to pretend like it wasn’t your car. It just indicates a strong level of reckless culpability of knowing. It’s difficult to say that anybody who grew up in Arizona doesn’t know that children and dogs die in closed cars,” Maricopa County Commissioner Jane McLaughlin said during the man’s court hearing, KSAZ reported.
This story was originally published July 28, 2025 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Dad left young kids in 125-degree car for an hour while in adult shop, AZ cops say."
