MASON CITY – Police are investigating an incident Monday where a concerned person reported that two young children were left in a running car while the parent was shopping.
Mason City police confirmed Tuesday that they are attempting to follow up with an individual who had left two small children buckled in their car seats with the car running “while they ran into Walgreens really fast”. The incident was reported Monday at about 12:14 PM at the Walgreen’s drug store, 1251 4th Street SW.
Police said that the driver was not yet located, but a message was left at the car owner’s residence so police can follow up.
No further information was available.
9 thoughts on “Police investigating after children left in running car while parent was shopping”
This is not okay under any circumstances. That is a busy road, someone could have kidnapped those children and been a long ways down the road before the parent came out…and even further before an alert was issued. Where do you then draw the line? Leave them at home for “just a minute”, while you run your errand?
It’s not a crime to leave your kids in the car. Obviously there are many factors that come in to play but it falls more into the, horrible parenting category.
There is no excuse for leaving children unattended. Things can happen that u could regret for a life time. It only takes one fluke to change the course. There are far too many sexual predators out there just prowling for chances. Child abduction can happen in seconds. It sounds harmless, and probably was when I was growing up, but sadly, times have changed in this area and not for the better. It is always best to err on the side of caution where children are concerned.
My parents used to leave me and my sisters in the car all of the time when we were little. Windows down and doors unlocked. Sounds like this person was trying to keep his kids safe and just run in quick.
why was a message left? why didnt they go inside of wait for the parent to come out? couldnt have had to wait that long since they just RAN IN FAST
Big deal. people have been doing that for as long as they have driven cars. If the kids are in no danger, mind your own business.
You’re taking this whole issue out of proportion. As long as the windows were rolled down a bit and parked in the shade those kids were fine.
There’s no shade at Walgreen’s.
Yes there is, most of the west side of the parking has trees and if it was later in the day the west side would be all shade.