Mother Arrested After Boy, 4, Is Found in Locked Car

A Sherman Oaks woman was arrested and her 4-year-old son was taken by social workers Saturday after she allegedly left the boy locked in the car in sweltering heat while she went shopping, authorities said.

The boy guzzled down water after he was taken out of the car, but was otherwise healthy, said Sgt. Pat Lynch of the Burbank Police Department. He was cared for by officers at the station until workers from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services arrived.

Witnesses called police about 3:15 p.m. after seeing the boy crying in the locked car at the Price Club in the 1000 block of Sherman Way, authorities said. The witnesses said the boy had been inside at least 15 minutes by the time the officers arrived.

The officers went inside the store and found Amanda Naud, 29--the boy’s mother--after searching for a few minutes, Lynch said.

Naud told the officers her son had been sleeping when they arrived at the store and that she had let him sleep while she went inside to shop, Lynch said.

An onlooker gave the boy water after he was taken out of the car, Lynch said. Meanwhile, two thermometers measured the temperature inside the car at 113 and 114 degrees.

Temperatures on Saturday throughout the San Fernando Valley were in the 90s, said John Sherwin, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times. At 3 p.m., the temperature in Burbank was 90 degrees.

Saturday’s incident is reminiscent of last week’s case in which a Turlock man forgot to take his 13-month-old daughter to day care and found her dead in the back seat of his car after working a full day. In that case, after the doors of the car had been open for two hours, the temperature inside was still 108 degrees.

Naud was being held at the Burbank jail on suspicion of felony child endangerment, Lynch said. Bail was set at $50,000 pending arraignment next week.