Woman Saves 3-Month-Old From Hot Car After Supermarket Guard Refused To Help

A British woman took it upon herself to save a 3-month-old baby from a hot car after a security guard refused to help her, over fears that he might lose his job.

Jenna Langston, 33, was walking by the parking lot of Asda supermarket in Barnes Hill, Birmingham, on Thursday when she noticed the security guard of the store standing guard beside a black car.

Having “heard a tannoy announcement giving a registration plate while I was inside the store,” Langston told Metro that she hoped "no one’s left a dog in there.” Langston said the temperature has reached 31 degrees Celsius outside and the announcement for the car’s registration number was made over an hour ago.

However, what the information she got from the guard shocked her to the core. “But a guard said a baby was inside. I dropped my shopping and ran over to the car. I said the baby needed to come out straight away,” she said.

However, the guard refused to help her and simply replied “they couldn’t break in because it would be classed as breaking and entering. I said I didn’t care and I was going to get the baby out. The guard said: We can’t help you do that. I could lose my job.”

That was the moment Langston knew that if she wanted to save the infant, she will have to act alone and quickly.

“All the doors were locked and none of the windows were open. I forced the boot (trunk) and threw bags and everything else out to get access to the baby. I got myself into the boot and put my top half over the back seat. He was dripping with sweat — his babygro [the one-piece garment for babies] was like it had been through the washing machine,” she said.

She added. “I opened the doors to let some air in and someone else asked if I wanted to sit in their car with the baby as it had air conditioning. Then the police and paramedics arrived.”

It was only when she had handed the baby over to emergency service personnel that Langston felt relieved. The ambulance rushed the baby to the nearby hospital for a checkup. The condition of the baby is not known.

Meanwhile, as the incident was unfolding, there was no sign of the driver who had left the baby in the hot car. Finally, when Langston spotted the driver of the vehicle making her way to the scene, the savior said she could not control her anger any longer.

“I screamed at her and asked what she had been thinking. I was really distressed. But she just looked at the floor," she said.

Finally, Langston added that despite knowing that her act of heroism potentially saved the baby’s life, she was still shell-shocked. “I’m still shaken now — I haven’t slept properly for a few nights,” she said.

West Midlands Police said they had spoken to the parents of the baby and “appropriate measures have been put in place to ensure the child is not at any risk.”

An Asda spokesperson, meanwhile, said in a statement that the security guard’s fear of losing his job was unwarranted as “the company would never punish a colleague for trying to do the right thing.”

They added that they were glad that the baby was recovered safely and they have launched an investigation into the case to determine what happened.