Cops: Mom left toddler in van while shopping
SUN-TIMES mEDIA December 16, 2010 10:08PM
Elgin Police Department officer Norma Thiel walks back to her squad car carrrying a 3-year-old child who had been left by his mother in the car seat of a minivan while she shopped in a nearby store. | Bill O'Neill~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 17, 2010 9:11AM
A 43-year-old Hoffman Estates woman was charged with misdemeanor child endangerment after allegedly leaving her toddler buckled into his child seat in the family minivan for nearly an hour while shopping in Elgin, police said.
Aixin Li, of the 1600 block of Burning Bush Lane in Hoffman Estates, parked the 2005 Toyota Sierra with her 3-year-old son inside at about 2:10 p.m. Thursday at the Village Discount, 844 W. Summit St., according to police.
She did not return to the locked vehicle until about 3 p.m., reports stated. Meanwhile. Elgin police were alerted, and both the police and fire departments arrived in the scene.
The boy was taken into protective custody by the police department until his father arrived to pick him up, police said. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services will follow up with the family, according to police. Weather reports showed outside temperatures at that time in the mid-20s.
