Vos Iz Neias is reporting that a Boro Park couple was arrested in New Jersey for leaving their two year old daughter alone in a car while they went into the mini-mart there.
I would think that most rational people understand that it is simply wrong to leave little children alone in a car for any length of time. It doesn't matter if it's "only two minutes." It doesn't matter if the kid is sleeping and you don't want to wake him/her up. It doesn't matter how safe you think the area is. It's simply wrong... period.
What I find amazing is that there are commentators on VIN who seem to think that it's perfectly acceptable to leave your child in the car if a parent needs to go to the bathroom or run into the store to pay gas, etc.
It doesn't take very long for someone to break into the car and either kidnap a child or steal the entire car (kid and all). The same people who leave their kid in the car would never leave a computer, a wallet or an open bag of cash on the front seat, but think nothing of leaving a child strapped in.
One commentator on VIN tried to make the point that the analogy of a child to a valuable item or cash is flawed since a child (unlike the other items) has no value to a common thief. That may be true - but a child certainly has value to a child molester or a kidnapper. And the car itself has value to a car thief who may take the car not caring or even realizing that there is a child strapped in the back.
It never ceases to amaze me how irresponsible some people can be with regard to their children. Back in April 2006, I posted about a similar event that happened to me personally.
It was Chol HaMoed Pesach and I was at the Museum of Natural History with my kids. The kids had taken a bathroom break (my kids are older and can go to the bathroom by themselves) and I was waiting outside. While I was there, a frum man comes over to me, asks me to watch his four or five year old daughter, and goes into the bathroom. I did the guy the favor, but afterwards I thought about it -- how did he know that I wasn't a kidnapper? Just because I had a kippah on my head, was wearing a white shirt and had four days of beard growth didn't mean that I wasn't a danger to his daughter. While he was in the bathroom, I could have simply ran off with her and who knows what could have happened. Fortunately for him, I'm not that sort of person -- but he didn't know that. How could he be so irresponsible as to leave his kid with a total stranger?
The Wolf
(Image credit: Ihasahotdog.com. Hat tip: Zach Kessin.)
