I am deeply sorry about the events that happened, and at the apparent nonchalance of the walmart staff.
A couple things need to be brought up though:

-Exactly what obligation do the employees have to help someone outside the store?

We know that this was an emergency situation, and that from the mother's vantage point the whole world should stop and help her out. I agree with this. There's nothing more frightening than watching your child in danger. From the cashiers' vantage point things might have looked a little different. Here's a lady screaming around in the store asking to take something and then come back and pay for it, or asking one of the cashiers (who are the least able people to help in the whole store) for assistance. If I were ringing out a line of people I don't know if I'd be able to just drop everything and run outside with a brick. It's the right thing to do but it's a tough call to make with angry people in line.

-How is it Walmart's fault?

The mother locked her keys in her car accidentally. That really sucks, and unfortunately happens far too often. I can't stress enough my sympathy for how badly that must feel. Again though, if someone came up to me while I was working, and asked me to help them break their own car window I don't know how I'd react. Too many things in the world turn out to be scams and too many people turn out to be sue-happy that How would I know this person wasn't trying to get a lawsuit on me and on my job for breaking her window? Besides, that this happened at Walmart was mostly coincidence. The same thing could have happened at Lowe's or Target or the mall, with the same result. It's not really a training issue, because it's not something that they need to prepare for. It's like expecting there to be instructions on how to save someone from drowning in the employee handbook. Just how often does that happen to warrant specific training on it?

It sucks but people generally don't want to get involved anymore in other people's lives. The mother needs to accept that she fell into an unfortunate string of events but none of them were caused by Walmart.

Still though, I fucking hate Walmart.

I've never had a really terrible experience at a big box store, but they do seem to have a lot of slackers working the menial jobs. And if the task is even SLIGHTLY outside their purview.

Example: I stopped by Target to get something... I don't remember what... and I noticed a car with its lights on in the parking lot. So I went up to customer service and told them the make, model, and license number.

They said "we don't make announcements on the PA."

I'm happy to hear that, minus one busted window, everything turned out for the best in the end. That said, I agree with DJQ that there's an element of "blame Walmart" to this complaint.
I prefer to blame lawyers and insurance companies, as it is the threat of lawsuits and premium hikes that have killed samaritanism in this country (and soon, THE WORLD!) Good Samaritan laws exist in all 50 states, but may not apply in all situations.

I have to agree with DeeJayQueue. This is a horrible situation that this woman was in, but where is the line between corporate responsibility and personal responsibility? Wal-Mart really has no reason to specifically train their employees on what to do if someone locks their baby in a hot car.

On the other hand, it was just plain shitty of the managers to just stand there like idiots. One of them could have grabbed something heavy off the shelves and run outside with the woman. Once he saw the baby in the car, and with all the witnesses she left in the store, I don't think it would be too hard to get out of any lawsuit she might have brought if this were a scam.

And never, ever ask a cashier to help you. They are low man on the totem pole. Go to the Customer Service desk, or that little podium you find near the middle of the cashier lanes. You're more likely to find a manager or supervisor there that can actually help you.

Hell, it's not just blame Wal-Mart down in Ft. Walton Beach. Note that she's sort of blaming the car, too: "Before I put my baby in, I had placed my purse on the floorboard. I shut the side door, and as luck would have it, all the doors locked up on me. They've never done this to me, so I was shocked."

Uh, now that I'm done blaming the victim...

I agree about not asking cashiers for help, but not because they can't in the sense of being powerless. They can't because it's the kind of job where you have to ask permission to go to the bathroom. I'll never forget the day I was given the business by the CSM because I took myself off to the bathroom during a slow period and wasn't given express permission to go. I pretty much resolved right then to finish college at any cost. I had the luxury of leaving, but a lot of cashiers don't. It's the very root of the problem with the company's employment practices--they treat people shittily because people need any job so badly that they take it.

I also agree that this isn't expressly a Wal-Mart problem, although on a more abstract level, it is a missed opportunity for the company to have good publicity. Wouldn't a headline reading "Wal-Mart Employee Rescues Baby" reflect much better on the company? There was no real reason for the cart-pusher not to help her. The company PR people ought to wake up to the fact that when you're already struggling, people will sooner look to prove what they already hear about you, than to disprove it. The only way for them to turn the tide of public opinion is to not only meet expectations re: being a good corporate citizen, but to exceed them, on every level, consistently, for a period of years.

I agree as well. Its likely that you don't have any legal recourse here but it couldn't hurt to check. However, what you DO have is a voice and now a sounding board.

I hate to pound this one into the ground but I'm sure the AOL rep didn't think much of Vincent Ferrari at the time just like the WalMart manager didn't think much of you.

By the way, just because it happened outside the store doesn't mean it was off WalMart property. The parking lot is no different than the inside of the store.

Baby dies in hot car after Wal-mart employees refuse to help mother unlock doors

That kind of headline is reason enough as to why Wal-mart has an interest in helping.

Is it Wal-mart's fault the woman locked her keys in her car?
No.

But when employee after employee blithely refuses to help, Wal-mart's culpability grows. If the baby had died, it doesn't take a genius to see Wal-mart's role in the death.

You should change your headline to read:

Baby nearly killed by accident, Wal-Mart: Indifferent.

As it reads now it's hurting your credibility with anyone who reads the actual story.

It's called being a responsible parent. I'm getting a little sick of everyone looking to blame their own (yes, accidental in this case) mistakes on some other entity.

Yes, it would have been incredibly sad for everyone had the child died. Sad for the employee's that did nothing. Sad for Walmart that would undoubtably taken some heat. But most sad for the mother who would have had to live with the memory that she was actually the one that caused her childs death. But you know what, she would have been the cause as well and that is just life.

Anyone who's never locked their keys in their car either:

a) doesn't drive a car.
b) doesn't lock their car doors.
c) is lying.
d) is so OCD they barely ever make it out of the house.

I say, it's on Wal-Mart's property, it's their problem.

At the very least, they should have called 911. Sending a security guard out with a nightstick would have been a very intelligent bonus move.

There's hardly a more powerful instinct than to want to help another person in immediate danger. If a work environment--and not just War-Mart's--is so insufferable or degrading or fear-inducing that an employee says "there's nothing I can do" to a woman whose baby will die in minutes, then yes, there's something wrong with Wal-Mart and its employees. They have no legal responsibility to train their staff how to aid people in such a situation. But the moral responsibility is indisputable. If that baby had died, the death would have been on the employees' heads.

Why didn't she just break the window herself?

That's my question.

What, you need someone to do it for you?

Frankly, I don't know if I would've either. Let's say you break the window for this woman and a piece of glass hits the baby's eye. How long before there's a lawsuit?

And before you shoot back, "I wouldn't do that," we're not really talking about you, we're talking about the general public, which is all I can base a decision on whether or not the average person when presented with a situation would sue. Unfortunately the climate of our world, right now, is that they will.

Grab a hammer, nail, or whatever and do it yourself. Hell, you're standing outside a Wal-Mart. Go in, grab a hammer, and do it your damn self.

Have you guys tried to break a car window lately? She said she was trying to find something to break the window, that she wanted to borrow/buy something from the store.

I, for one, am comforted to know that Vinny would apparently let the kid die rather than risk being sued. Perhaps he will regale us with another comment about how it's the "general public" that is only looking out for themselves, and not him.

Isn't Walmart the chain that encourages people with campers to stay in their parking lots overnight?

Given that policy, you'd think they would train employees to deal with emergency situations. (Assuming, of course, that the employees aren't locked in the store overnight at the same time.)

Knowlege that you helped save a kid's life is of little comfort when you face financial ruin from being sued by a frantic mother after you break her car window and either glass or the projectile hits something/someone it shouldn't, or worse, jail time if the kid gets injured "by accident".
If we're talking about "which is more important, getting sued or saving a kid's life?" then why was the mother so concerned with the legality of grabbing something off the shelf from the store? Just grab it and break the window. Come back and pay for it later.
From walmart's POV, if they DID step in and something happened, they're legally culpable. It's the same reason they tell you not to pursue shoplifters out of the store. It's not the most humanitarian stance to have, and under emergency circumstances it's easy to seem cold and impersonal but this is walmart here... the people are clinging onto a job for dear life and they aren't about to do anything to jeopardize that.

I bet from now on this lady keeps a spare key on her or hidden on the outside of the car.

OK, I have to ask this but how does this woman break the window herself? As to grabbing something off the shelf from the store, do you really think she gets back to her car before security grabs her? A hysterical woman in the front of the store tends to get the attention of the people manning the cameras. Seriously, a woman yelling and screaming and going cashier to cashier then runs to the back of the store where hardware is and grabs a hammer and tries to run back to the parking lot, which of the security officers risks his/her job letting this happen?

I don't think this is the typical evil Wal-Mart story. I doubt if it has anything to do with corporate policies. I doubt if there would be any legal finding against them. But, I do think it would be nothing by bad publicity if there was any kind of trial. How fast would this store start being called 'Death-Mart'?

I think the behavior of the employees is rotten and the other customers. Such apathy is becoming the norm for Americans. Maybe it is because of lawsuits and lawyers but in any case, it's a sad state of our country today.

DJQ, legal culpability aside, babies dying in parking lots doesn't sell anything.

I think we're also missing the point that beyond the fact that they stood idly by (for whatever reason), it makes for horrid customer service, which is what we're all about on this site. It's like calling tech support (when you're not covered by contract) with a problem and their response is "sucks to be you... click." Reasonable companies will make every attempt to help to get another sale, and to get good word of mouth. Wal Mart could have done something ("Here's something to break into your car") and help off-set some of the evil wal mart stories out there.

"Knowlege that you helped save a kid's life is of little comfort when you face financial ruin from being sued..."

The moral repugnance of that stance aside, it also makes a lot of presumptions that give you justification to avoid doing the right thing. For one, it's not like you're guaranteed to hit the baby in the eye or injure her. For two, although we've all read the cases of good samaritans being sued, you're kidding yourself into believing what you want to believe if you think it's epidemic or even likely that would happen. For three, even if she DID sue, opportunistic lawsuits like these are overwhelmingly dismissed.

Again, there's some high-profile exceptions, but the reason they become high-profile is because they give people an excuse to be selfish and blame society. Do some research on tort reform and you'll find a whole lot of myths being taken for granted as fact.

opportunistic lawsuits like these are overwhelmingly dismissed.

Like the one where the idiotic women spilled coffee in her crotch?

Every single day we hear stories of some dumb lawsuit where the plaintiff won. Don't act like it's such a rarity. I wouldn't have done it. I would've taken my phone out of my pocket and called 911 and let the police or fire department deal with it.

And yeah, it may warm the cochles of your heart to know that I'm not interested in ruining my life. What a bastard I am. How dare I not want to take the risk of getting sued off the planet. How dare I think of my family and not hers. What a bastard I am.

Everyone uses the McDonalds/coffee example because it's the only one they know. 'Cause it is indeed a rarity. But if it happens five times a year, that's 30 cases since 2000....plenty to demonstrate an imaginary epidemic if you're familiar with them.

That said, if you call 911, as far as I'm concerned, you did you part. But if, say, your cell phone died, and you said, "Sorry, lady...things look bleak for your baby, but if I bust the windown open, the shards might hit your baby. And then you might sue me. And then you might win a huge settlement from me. So, sorry," then yeah, you are indeed the bastard you described yourself to be.

She breaks the window with the same thing she expected the manager or the cashier to have. Anything blunt and heavy. Hardware isn't the only place to find such objects, and as the woman said time was ticking away. If the 'woman' part was the part that was being emphasized, then that's just plain BS. A hysterical woman with a baby stuck inside her hot car is perfectly capable of breaking a window.

@ Mr. Eleganza: "For one, it's not like you're guaranteed to hit the baby in the eye or injure her." You're right. The odds of that happening are about the same as locking your purse and keys in the car with your infant on a hot day.

The point is that the lady is pissed that nobody at WALMART helped her. The employees weren't the only ones there... there were plenty of customers and other people standing around just as capable of helping, but didn't. Shame on them? Of course. Write angry letters to their mothers? No. Walmart has a big public face, and a bad reputation, so lets drag them through the mud. If enough sticks maybe get a lawsuit going.

DeeJayQueue,

I don't really disagree with anything you said there, although as equivocally rare as it might be to hit the kid with a shard (and getting sued and losing a big settlement) vs. locking your keys in your car, I don't know...seems like one might want to take the chance and the statistics when a baby's life is on the line.

The way I see it is simple. If the baby did die, Wal-Mart has no culpability. But if they could've helped but didn't, they are tremendous a-holes. If you're a private citizen who is aware of the situation and have the ability to act on it, you have no obligation to do so either, but you are a tremendous a-hole if you don't.

With a life at stake, it's not the time to be pointing at other people, scratching your head, and saying, "Now, WHO should bust this window?"

Now, since this matter is resolved, we can then start pointing fingers. Should the mother have busted open the window? Yes, of course. But again...when a life is at risk, and the mother's is screaming at me to help her do things she could do herself, I would hope that I would be focused on saving the baby and not even noticing whether she SHOULD be asking ME for help.

But citing the potential for a frivolous, ungrateful, preposterous lawsuit to succeed as a reason not to intervene is just an excuse to be the coward that, unfortunately, it's instinctive to try to be.

My question is, when 911 (EMS or police) arrive, after the baby was checked, was the mother arrested for child neglect? What kind of idiot leaves their baby in a car? This happens ALL the time and in every State. The answer is it's an accident, or I was so busy I forgot...this is your child, you put your child first before you start thinking, "I wonder if Walmart still has those pillows on sale".

If the lady had enough time to run around yelling at everyone, she had enough time to call 911 herself from a payphone...usually located in the FRONT of a store. Again, if this was such an emergency, all the more reason this so-called-mother should be charged or at the very least ordered to attend child-welfare classes.

"My question is, when 911 (EMS or police) arrive, after the baby was checked, was the mother arrested for child neglect? What kind of idiot leaves their baby in a car? ...this is your child, you put your child first before you start thinking, "I wonder if Walmart still has those pillows on sale".

Yeahhh...um, you didn't really read the lady's letter on how things went down, did you?

Mr Black, did you read the story? The lady in questions was loading her car AFTER she had gone shopping when she accidentally locked it. It wasn't like she left the baby in the car while she went pillow shopping.

Mr. Black,

Please read the post carefully. She didn't leave the baby in her car. She took the baby in shopping with her, and after putting the baby back in the car, she accidentally locked herself out. The only time she left the baby in the car was to go find help to get the baby out.

As for 911, in this situation, EMS or police would likely have been too late. Babies are fragile, and in a van in 104 degree heat, you need to act fast. Five minutes would have been too long.

Given that she had locked her purse insider her car, she probably didn't have anything to help her break open a window. Going into the store for help was absolutely the right thing to do.

1. find somebody in the parking lot
2. ask to borrow the tire iron from their car for 20 seconds.
3. smash window
4. return tire iron

seems simple enough, and wal mart doesn't even have to get involved.

which is what she eventually did, but still...

Despite the fear of lawsuits and the like from breaking the window, the employees should have at least called 911. *Everybody* should be trained to do that in an emergency situation. And Wal-Mart employees especially should be trained on what to do in emergencies, since they have so many people going through their stores every day and there must be situations like these all the time. What if someone collapses between the aisles, having a heart attack, are they going to say to the corpse, "sorry, you didn't verbally request that we call 911, you just said help me, I'm having a heart attack"?

if it was in wal-mart's parking lot it is wal-marts property to which it most likely is insured there for they are liable for negligence. no, it wasn't their fault that the keys were locked in the car, but taking no action to help WAS they're mistake. and besides, being a human being you would want to at least act like there was a need for urgency. wow. that heat must have really made wal-mart employees more retarded than usual.

MrEleganza, Die Eli Die, Richard Garfinkel...since you didn't get the point of what I was saying, she DID leave her baby in the car. If she didn't, there article wouldn't be here. It's not relevant whether it occured before or after she went shopping (and yes, I did read it was after). My point was she was too careless, and as a result locked her own baby in a hot car. She's blaming Walmart and launching a negative campaign against them when the one who should be blamed is her.

.....I'm a manager, and I'd hate to have done what the Walmart guys did. (Indecisiveness ends up on performance reviews!) I'd expect my employees to tell me immediately about this sort of situation, and I'd have broken the window, even if it cost me my job, or I had to pay for it.

.....And... if it were my kid, and I'd messed up, you'd better believe I'd have broken that window immediately. That baby would have been dead inside 5 minutes in Alabama in July. No way I run inside the store and leave it!

I think what this speaks to more than whether or not it would or wouldn't be Wal-Mart's fault is the sort of bixarre zombie-like behaviour that can overtake seemingly normal people when they work at places like this.

You know how every once in a while you get a new person at a big box store, or encounter someone who is genuinely helpful? It's a really noticeable and remarkable thing. But eventually most people working at Wal-Marts, fast food restaurants, etc. get to the point where someone telling you their child may die makes you shrug your shoulders, say 'sorry' and keep walking.

Maybe it's the feeling of being a cog in a giant machine that would continue to run just as smoothly even if you fell off the face of the Earth tomorrow, because something is sucking out these people's souls. Maybe after these people start beleiving that they have no ownership in what they are supposed to be doing for a living, it just sort of numbs them to even the most urgent situations.

I strongly sympathize. Some psycho on a motorcycle accused me of almost hitting him as I drove into the Wal-Mart parking lot. He started following me around the lot and screaming profanities at me. I was scared... I drove up to the sidewalk in front of the store, and he started putting his wheel in front of my car so I couldn't move. The only way I could get away was to drive up on the sidewalk, so I did. I screamed at an employee, out my passenger window (the psycho was at my driver's window), "get security and get this guy away from me!" He looks at the employee next to him and goes, "should I get security?" The guy left, and a manager came out. I was badly shaken and so I didn't think to ask for the police, so they didn't call the police. Fortunately a cart pusher I happened to know saw me, asked what happened. He walked next to my car as I parked it and walked me into the store. The manager was a jerk, like, "what do you want us to do about it?" Oh and of course, store security had nothing on their cameras. I really wish I had called the police that day.

Oh, and Mr. Black? I assume you never made a mistake in your life.

Why, not only does he make mistakes, he did so on his first post on this thread! He wrote, "What kind of idiot leaves their baby in a car? ...this is your child, you put your child first before you start thinking, "I wonder if Walmart still has those pillows on sale"."

It's clear from that statement he thought this was a case of someone forgetting about their child and leaving them in a car, and that, as me and others said, HE DID NOT READ THE ORIGINAL post all the way through. His second post is just BS and a weak attempt at disguising the obvious.

Mistakes...plenty...locking my baby sister in a car, never. To me, that isn't a "mistake", its a sign of someone who needs parenting classes. If the baby died, this situation would have been handled in a whole different manner. Walmart wouldn't be investigated, but the mother would be.

Coming back and reading the thread, I don't want to change my first post, but I do think that the real lesson for the mom is to never put her baby and her purse in the car at the same time without her. If the keys don't work, you have your cell phone; you dial 911 first and seek help on foot second. It's also a good argument for manual override of electronic locks, though that would probably cause a theft problem. I don't know, I'm just thinking. I doubt this would have happened to me, not because I did anything consciously to avoid it, but because I seem never to put my purse into the car until I get in it myself--a habit from before I had a baby. A good one, it seems.

Bottom line is that when something like this happens and tragedy is averted, a good use of one's energy is to think about what happened and plan ahead to prevent its happening again. Getting Wal-Mart to be a less doinky company is laudable, but not terribly practical on an individual basis, and a mom has a responsibility to her child(ren) to be practical first.

.....Here, here! etinterrapax is a rare individual I'd trust to watch over my children.

Well, I've been a mom for all of two months and haven't dropped him yet. But I appreciate the faith. :D

I am only sad that the baby has to be raised by a parent who is more concerned with the financial inconvience of a broken window than the well being of her child. Why was it?so important to not instantly smash out a window and deal with it later. I'm glad walmart did nothing, not their fault for faulty parenting. Granted its a horrible thing to have happen to you but had Walmart done something and a tiny shard of glass hit the baby then Walmart would have been sued for that.

I only wish that tire iron would have smashed through the window slipping from the guy's hand and hitting the baby in the soft spot. She is a selfish "independent woman" who feels that her automobile status is more important than the next generation of brats she decided to spawn into this world. I don't like child services but this is an instance where they need to step in.

DeeJayQ - don't we all, including wal-mart employees, have some responsibility to act as humans and to act to stop human suffering.

You gotta specifically ask for the store to call 911 in an emergency?! Its an emergency, if someone says call 911 b/c XYZ is happening do it, act like a human and pretend you care!

As a consumer, I stand by Wal-mart. She did something ignorant; she faced the penalties for doing something stupid. Legally, did Wal-Mart have to help her? No, they could have even told her to get off their property because she was causing a scene. At least we know she likely won't ever make that kind of mistake again.

As a person who is one the head people of a corporation; I would have it so employees called the police immediately upon seeing a frantic female running around. I would have employees immediately call 911 if I knew a life threatening situation was occurring. But I wouldn't let any employee intervene; it wouldn't happen: they would be fired and counter sued if any charges were placed upon the company because of their hero tactics. The same would be done to the mother if the company was sued because another customer was traumatized by the death of the baby and sued.

Sounds pretty damn cold of me, but I run on cold logic, not by ethnics and emotional response.

@The Bans: What is wrong with you? Was your mother killed by a yuppie? That is sick and inexcusable to say about someone's child. This woman wasn't worried about her car. She couldn't get in it! She wanted to get her baby out and safe, but she couldn't. To say the baby's life should have been taken for a sin no one committed is almost as disgusting as the apathy this woman was treated with.

@Mr. Black: She didn't leave her baby in the van. She put in her purse, her baby, and then closed the door. The doors locked on her. No leaving involved. She only left to get help.

Again, though, it isn't Wal*Mart's fault. Cars really need to be equipped with some kind of automatic "all locked" air conditioner control. That would make a really nice option for "soccer mom mobiles" to prevent things like this from happening.

This is the reason I think biometric locks should be required on cars or one of those smartkey systems with a manual override well placed within the door handle or something. The way a smartkey works is that the car won't lock up unless the key is OUTSIDE the car. And if all car locks were biometric she would have been able to get the baby out in about a minute.

Why didn't the woman walk in the store, walk up to customer service and say "please call 911, i locked my baby in the car" OR better yet how much you want to bet she passed a phone booth on her way in. She's probably one of those mothers that freak out when they lose their kid and start running around in horror to the point where you cannot understand what they are saying or trying to do. I hope she really wasn't expecting an associate to break her window because if one would have done that you know this report would say "Mother sues Walmart for saving baby" Welcome to America.