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Inmates help rescuers break into car to save baby trapped inside
Image source: Shadow Lantry/Facebook screenshot

Inmates help rescuers break into car to save baby trapped inside

Under police supervision, the inmates used a wire coat hanger to open the door

A group of inmates saved the day Thursday, when they helped break into a locked car and rescue a 1-year-old girl.

What's the story?

Parents in New Port Richey, Florida, accidentally locked their keys inside their SUV — along with their 1-year-old daughter. The parents contacted the police, but they were also having trouble getting into the car. The baby's father was just about to try to break his car's window when a nearby Paso County Sheriff's Office Inmate supervisor said he might be able to help.

The inmate supervisor was overseeing a crew of low-risk, non-violent offenders who were fixing medians in a parking lot. They put down their gear and immediately got to work on the car door.

A video recorded by the baby's mother shows the baby inside the locked car, sleepily sucking on her pacifier while men in striped prison outfits try to break inside. Police made sure that the toddler's father kept his head in the window the entire time, so that his daughter wouldn't panic when she saw strange faces peering in at her.

In the video, the police can be heard explaining to the father that if the baby starts bawling, they'll stop trying to open the door and break a window to reach her quickly.

But that warning turned out to be unnecessary. The inmates found a wire coat hanger and pried the top of the door open enough to stick the hanger inside and unlock the car.

After the car was safely back open, the mother explained to the camera what had happened. Her husband had thrown his keys in the car while trying to get his daughter in her car seat. He closed the back door, and realized that the car was locked. She said that the baby had only been inside the car "for maybe five minutes" before officers and inmates opened the door.

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