Six-month-old baby rescued from hot car at shopping center

HOUSTON -- Police and bystanders came to the rescue of a six-month-old baby left in a hot car in a parking lot at a Texas shopping center on one of the hottest days of the year.

The infant was found Friday by security guards, who heard his cries coming from a locked car with a window cracked for ventilation.

The security guard pushed the window down with his hands, creating enough room to reach into the SUV and open the door.

The crying infant was pulled from the SUV. Shortly after that, his mother walked up and asked for her child.

In cellphone video taken by a bystander and given to Eyewitness News, one of the guards asked the child's age. When she continued to ask for the baby, he replied, "This child needs to be checked out (by paramedics)."

The baby was taken to Texas Children's Hospital. The mother was taken to the city jail, booked on an allegation of child abandonment. By 4pm, the DA's office accepted a charge against the 37-year-old woman. We were told by the DA's office that the child may have been left alone for as long as 20 minutes before he was taken out of the vehicle.

It is a crime to leave a child alone in a car, whether the vehicle is running or parked. In a Texas summer, a child left alone in a hot car can have fatal consequences.

So far this summer, Children's Protective Services reports that there have been no child deaths in the Houston area. The last was recorded in September 2013, according to an agency spokesperson.