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Oklahoma City police have released body camera footage showing an officer rescuing two children from a hot vehicle parked at Penn Square Mall.
Andrea Nelson said something didn't look right when she was pulling into the parking garage at the mall last week.
"I just kind of glanced over and then I did a double take because I couldn't believe that I saw a child in the car," Nelson said. "In the driver's seat just kind of playing."
Police reports show that just before noon May 27 police were called to the lower level of the parking garage after an individual found a young girl and boy sweating and crying inside a vehicle by themselves. Authorities found the windows in the vehicle to be partially rolled down but estimated the inside temperature to be around 105 degrees. The officer noted that the children's cheeks were red and their hair was wet from sweating.
Nelson is the one that noticed something was wrong.
"I just feel like it's common sense to get your child out of the car unless there's something seriously wrong with you," Nelson said. "I mean there's really no excuse for it."
The two children were taken to the hospital to be cleared.
Police arrested the mother of the two children, 26-year-old Samantha Pitts of Enid, on two counts of child abandonment.
Oklahoma City Police officer Megan Morgan said cars can become dangerous when it's hot like this very fast.
"Make sure that if the children are in the vehicle: A, you're in the vehicle with them but also that the air conditioner is on high," Morgan said. "If you don't have an air conditioner, maybe roll the windows down or maybe consider not putting them in the car if there's not an air conditioner."
It's even more important as we face hotter days in the next few months.
"It's just an important reminder to parents to be cognizant and aware of the fact that the vehicles get so much hotter," Morgan said. "The back seats are typically hotter than the front seats. So what you're feeling those children might not be feeling."
In the body camera footage, the officer can be seen attempting to calm the children down before placing them in the backseat of his cooler patrol car.
