Baby Left in Car a ‘Misunderstanding’

A British couple who could face up to a year in jail after leaving their baby alone in a car outside a shopping mall said Friday that the incident was due to a cultural misunderstanding.

Yisroel Singer, 26, said he was shocked to find police waiting to arrest him and his wife, Golda, in a New York parking lot on Dec. 23 after they left 6-month-old Rosie in the car to take daughters Rochel, 3, and Chaya, 2, to a bathroom.

Under U.S. law, the couple were charged with child endangerment, a misdemeanor.

Singer said he believed his sleeping daughter was safe in the locked car with a slightly opened window and did not want to awaken her and bring her out in the cold at the suburban Green Acres mall in Long Island, he said.

“It opened our eyes to a new kind of reality,” Singer said.

The family lives a sheltered life in a Jewish community in London, does not have a television in their house, has no criminal background and was not aware their actions could land them in legal trouble, Singer said.

Parents in England who leave a child in a car “probably would not end up in court,” he said.

The couple were ordered to remain in the United States for a court hearing next week. They could face up to a year in prison if found guilty of endangering the life of a child, said their lawyer, Meir Moza.

The lawyer said he had been talking with prosecutors about possible mitigating factors, including differences of culture.

“I think they pretty much understand this was a cultural misunderstanding,” Moza said. “My client is going to be vindicated in this case.”