SURPRISE

Police: Woman left 2-year-old in hot car while shopping

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
The Republic | azcentral.com

Surprise police have arrested a woman they say left her 2-year-old in a hot car while she was shopping.

Mikayla Lynn Peer, 20, left her child in her car as she was shopping near Bell Road and West Point Parkway on Saturday afternoon, authorities said. At the time, temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.

A shopper noticed the child in the car and immediately called authorities, police said.

Surprise officers arrived and saw the child sweating profusely. Officers then broke one of the vehicle's windows and the child was treated by paramedics from the Surprise Fire-Medical Department.

The child was evaluated at a local hospital and did not appear to have life-threatening injuries.

Readings in the car indicated an average temperature of 108 degrees and police later discovered the child had been in the vehicle for about eight minutes before they arrived.

Police could not immediately find Peer, who returned to her vehicle 20 minutes after she had left the child in the car, they said.

She was booked into a Maricopa County jail and is expected to face charges of child neglect and child endangerment, the release said.

The Surprise Police Department applauded the concerned citizen who called police and asked members of the public to keep an eye out for unattended children inside vehicles.

Mikayla Lynn Peer, 20, left her 2-year-old child in a hot car as she shopped, Surprise police said.