Kids left alone in hot car that reached 104 degrees, GA cops say. Man charged
Two children were left alone in a sweltering car outside an Atlanta shopping mall, and now a man is charged, Georgia police said.
The man was arrested on two counts of second-degree child cruelty in the June 4 incident at Cumberland Mall, authorities wrote in a criminal warrant obtained by McClatchy News.
Attorney information for the man wasn’t immediately available.
Officers were called to the parking lot just before 1 p.m. after a witness spotted the youngsters in a car by themselves and called 911, WSB-TV reported, citing the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said the kids were in the car with no air conditioning for at least 41 minutes. Temperatures in Atlanta reached 80 degrees that day, according to AccuWeather, and authorities said the car’s internal temperature hit triple digits.
“An infrared thermometer displayed the temperature of 104 degrees where said victim was sitting in,” according to the affidavit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised that cracking a window isn’t enough to stay cool in the warmer months, as “temperatures inside the car can rise almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit within the first 10 minutes.”
Authorities didn’t give an update on the children’s conditions or say if or how they’re related to the man who was arrested.
McClatchy News reached out to the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office for more information June 10 and was awaiting a response.
The man was taken to the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and released June 6 after posting an $11,220 bond, online records show.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Kids left alone in hot car that reached 104 degrees, GA cops say. Man charged."