Toddler Left In Hot Vehicle Rescued By Police Officer In Lakewood

LAKEWOOD, NJ — A Lakewood man has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after he left his 2-year-old son locked in a parked vehicle Tuesday at the Lakewood Township Police Department, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said, on a day where temperatures reached 97 degrees and the heat index was well above 100 degrees.

Simcha Feldman, 34, of Lakewood, was arrested Tuesday afternoon when he returned to his vehicle, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

A Lakewood police officer was unloading items from his patrol vehicle in the parking lot at the police department about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday when he saw a small child alone in a parked vehicle, authorities said.

The vehicle was locked, so the officer grabbed a lockout tool from his patrol vehicle, unlocked the vehicle and removed the boy, authorities said.

The child, who investigators determined had been in the vehicle for 24 minutes, was treated by Lakewood First Aid and taken to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, where he was treated and released.

Feldman was taken to the Ocean County Jail but had been released by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, according to a check of jail records online.

Lakewood police, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit collaborated on the investigation.