4 children were found trapped inside a 99 degree hot car in Alabama Walmart parking lot. Then their mother was released on $4,000 bond

Grocery runs, quick errands, and short store stops are the kind of thing that rarely make the news. In Selma, Alabama, one of those routine trips turned into a child endangerment case after officers on patrol noticed something inside a car in a Walmart parking lot.

According to Law&Crime, officers were doing a routine patrol of the Selma Walmart on Thursday when they spotted four children inside a parked car as the outside temperature reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The children were reportedly unattended at the time officers approached the vehicle.

Once the children were removed from the car, officers spoke with them, and the children said the woman with them, identified as 26-year-old D’Anna Harris, was inside the store. It has not been made clear how long Harris was inside the store, how long the children had been left in the vehicle, or what her relationship to them was.

Police arrested the woman after speaking with the children

Harris was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was booked, posted a $4,000 bond, and was released. No date for her next court appearance was available as of this writing.

A parked vehicle can become significantly hotter than the temperature outside within minutes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a car’s interior temperature can rise by nearly 20 degrees in the first 10 minutes, while children’s bodies can heat up three to five times faster than adults’. In Selma, the temperature reached 99 degrees Thursday, though police have not said how long the children had been inside the vehicle, a detail that can be critical in cases involving children left in hot cars. 

This isn’t the first time a Walmart parking lot has become the backdrop for this kind of story. In a separate North Carolina case, a 3-year-old reportedly helped police find two siblings who had been left inside a vehicle while their mother was inside the store. Selma police have not indicated whether Harris could face additional charges.

It remains unclear whether any of the four children required medical attention. Police have also not disclosed the children’s ages or clarified Harris’ relationship to them.