# People who "forget" their babies in the car on a hot day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 20, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248 "2014-06-20T22:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/281 "2014-07-02T02:16:37Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > We’ve all read this thread. Not everyone has necessarily Googled “How long does it take a baby to die in a hot car, and how hot should the car be?” If anyone reading this thread has a child under two, DON’T GOOGLE THAT! If you already have, clear your cache, browser history, and cookies. Unless you really are planning to kill your kid too. In that case, please leave it all there for the cops to find. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/282 "2014-07-03T19:46:04Z")
It gets worse. ☹ > **[Dad Charged With Son's Hot Car Death Could Face Death Penalty](https://abcnews.go.com/US/dad-charged-toddlers-hot-car-death-sexting-boy/story?id=24416967)** > > The Georgia dad charged with killing his toddler son by leaving the boy in a hot car all day could face the death penalty, a judge said today at a court hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/283 "2014-07-03T19:52:43Z")
> [@Kasper1014](#): > > It gets worse. ☹ > > [Dad Charged With Son's Hot Car Death Could Face Death Penalty - ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/US/dad-charged-toddlers-hot-car-death-sexting-boy/story?id=24416967) Video starts auto-playing. Warning if you’re at work, like me. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/284 "2014-07-03T19:58:47Z")
Sorry about that! ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/285 "2014-07-03T19:59:24Z")
Is there any good reason to take out a life insurance policy on one’s toddler? ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/286 "2014-07-03T19:59:52Z")
I was thinking it was just an article. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/287 "2014-07-03T20:03:13Z")
Summary of the article please, for us who can’t risk the video autoplaying? Ta! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/288 "2014-07-03T20:05:32Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > Is there any good reason to take out a life insurance policy on one’s toddler? Sure. The cost of funerals is horrendous, and you no doubt will spend time off work trying to cope: if you’re innocent that is. A $25,000 policy sounds completely reasonable. I do think he’s guilty though. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/289 "2014-07-03T20:07:23Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Summary of the article please, for us who can’t risk the video autoplaying? Ta! The father spent the day sexting with six girls and women (one was 17 and he had sexted with her when she was 16). He also looked for articles on reddit about living a child-free life as well as about surviving life in prison. There’s a bunch of other stuff related to his reactions and those of his wife. Also, they had two life insurance policies on the child, one for 2,000 and one for 25,000. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/290 "2014-07-03T20:08:23Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Sure. The cost of funerals is horrendous, and you no doubt will spend time off work trying to cope: if you’re innocent that is. A $25,000 policy sounds completely reasonable. I do think he’s guilty though. Thanks, I hadn’t thought of funeral expenses. I think of life insurance as replacing lost income. I can’t imagine taking out policies in case of my kids deaths, though. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/291 "2014-07-03T20:09:58Z")
Well, here’s a few select quotes. There’s other stuff too. > [@](#): > > The Georgia dad charged with killing his toddler son by leaving the boy in a hot car all day was exchanging graphic texts with multiple woman, including a teenage girl, in the hours before he found the boy dead, a detective testified today at a court hearing. > [@](#): > > The detective said that one of the females Harris sexted with was 17. > [@](#): > > Harris and his wife had two insurance policies on their son, one worth $2,000 through Home Depot, where Harris worked, and a second policy worth $25,000 the couple took out in November 2012, Stoddard said. > > Police noticed a “foul stench or odor” coming from the vehicle and hour and a half after Cooper was removed, Stoddard said, suggesting Harris would have also realized the smell. > > “It smelled like decomposition, or death,” Stoddard said. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/292 "2014-07-03T20:24:16Z")
Here’s the article from the link above… The Georgia dad charged with killing his toddler son by leaving the boy in a hot car all day was exchanging graphic texts with multiple women, including a teenage girl, in the hours before he found the boy dead, a detective testified today at a court hearing. [Removed full text of article] ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/293 "2014-07-03T20:25:58Z")
Sorry for the double post! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/294 "2014-07-03T20:33:22Z")
> [@Kasper1014](#): > > Sorry for the double post! I don’t think we should be posting entire articles. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/295 "2014-07-03T20:34:04Z")
Apparently the couple had been using a front facing car seat and switched back to rear facing a couple of weeks before the child’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/296 "2014-07-03T20:39:07Z")
Holy fucking shit… this is foul. This doesn’t look good, at all, for the parents. I’m having a hard time maintaining objectivity here. I’m trying to figure out a scenario where this might not be what it looks like. That poor, poor, kid. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/297 "2014-07-03T20:49:47Z")
I had never posted an article before. Next time, I’ll paraphrase the article for sure! 🙂 I’m wondering if the mom is at fault as well…they make me sick! ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/298 "2014-07-03T21:01:00Z")
According to another article, the front facing car seat was in the mother’s car, the rear facing one in the father’s. Same source says the child had outgrown the seat in the father’s car. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/299 "2014-07-03T21:15:28Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > Is there any good reason to take out a life insurance policy on one’s toddler? Most parents take out a whole life policy on their infants. I have one for my son. It pays small dividends, and can be used as collateral. If he dies young, it will just cover funeral expenses, but more importantly, it’s a guaranteed policy that costs very little per month, and that he can have his whole life, so even if he end up with a condition like diabetes that makes it really difficult for him to get life insurance, he will still have this policy, and by the time he is middle-aged, it will be significant. My parents took out one for me when I was a baby, and it paid a dividend that rose a few dollars a year, which my parents let me keep, so every year I got a check that was about $10 (in 1970s money), and it was fun. It matured when I was in college, and I got $1,000, at just the right time, because I was planning on spending a year at Gallaudet, so it paid for my traveling expenses to DC, and I had enough to bank for my book fees and living expenses (I was in a dorm, but you have stuff, like toiletries, notebooks, campus events that require tickets). I still have the policy, and it’s not huge, but would cover my funeral about 3 times over. It can be cashed out, but not for full value, so I could use it as collateral for a loan, although I never have. $25,000 is ridiculous for anyone other than rich people who also carry kidnap insurance, or children who work, like children in the entertainment industry, and the second in mainly because parents might have to pay back an advance if a child died in the middle of a project. If the child actually supports the family (and the parents are salaried as the child’s managers, or something) the child will be insured for a lot more than $25,000. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248/300 "2014-07-03T21:57:39Z")
> [@Kasper1014](#): > > I had never posted an article before. Next time, I’ll paraphrase the article for sure! 🙂 [Moderation] Thanks, we’d appreciate it. A short representative quote, followed by a link to the original, would also be acceptable. [/Moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-forget-their-babies-in-the-car-on-a-hot-day/691248.md?page=16)