Couple Who Left Children in Parked Car Are Charged

A Canoga Park couple who left their children in a car in 100-degree heat while they shopped at a Northridge department store were charged with child endangering Tuesday, authorities said.

Luis Filiberto Hernandez, 27, and his wife Theresa, 32, are accused of leaving their 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son in the family’s Isuzu parked outside Strouds in the 8700 block of Corbin Avenue for an hour on Friday, said Deputy City Atty. Terri Siegel. The outside temperature was in the 90s at the time.

Luis Hernandez pleaded no contest to one count of child endangering and was sentenced to five days in jail and ordered to pay $200 in restitution, perform 100 hours of community service and take a six-month parenting program, according to Mike Qualls of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Theresa Hernandez was released on her own recognizance and will be arraigned Aug. 2, Qualls said.

A mall security guard said she found the children in the unlocked car--the girl unconscious on the floor and her brother on the back seat of the car--just after 1 p.m. She revived the children with water, Siegel said.

The guard then called police and paramedics, but before they arrived, the Hernandezes returned to the car and sped away with the children in the car, she said. Police chased and stopped them a few blocks from the store, she said.

The parents were arrested and the children were taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center where they were examined and turned over to the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services, Siegel said.