Florida Granddad Arrested After Leaving Toddler In Airport Rental Car
(CNN) – A Florida grandfather was arrested after an employee at a Hertz car rental lot in the Daytona Beach International Airport discovered a toddler who was left in the back seat of a returned vehicle for about 45 minutes Monday evening, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.“The child was scared and hot, but thankfully in good health when checked by paramedics,” said the Tuesday statement.Deputies assigned to the airport responded to the rental lot at about 6 p.m.
Monday “after a Hertz employee reported the toddler was found in a locked vehicle in the car return lot,” authorities said. “Deputies arrived to find the employee carrying the child, whose face was warm and streaked with dried tears, but was breathing normally,” the sheriff's office said.The vehicle had been returned at 5:13 p.m.
Monday, but deputies and airport staff were unable to make contact with the driver after finding the toddler, authorities said.“Then a call came in from the child’s mother, who had just learned her father had left her daughter in the rental car – not at his home, as he’d told her.
The mother was on her way to the airport immediately to be reunited with her child, who is just under the age of 2,” authorities said.The child was returned to her mother and the Department of Children and Families was notified.David Towner, 62, of Port Orange, had been babysitting his granddaughter and left her in the rental car, detectives said, citing interviews and airport security footage.“Towner was remorseful and cooperative with deputies,” the sheriff's office said.He is charged with one count of child neglect and is being held in the Volusia County jail on $2,500 bond, jail records show.
