Nashville Mom 'Didn't Know' Not To Leave 3-Year-Old In Hot Car

NASHVLLE, TN -- A Nashville mother left her 3-year-old girl locked inside a car with no air conditioning in a 100 Oaks parking lot Thursday afternoon and claimed she "didn't know" it was illegal, according to Vanderbilt Police.

VUPD officers - who have jurisdiction at the mall - were patrolling the parking lot at 4:30 Thursday afternoon when they saw several people standing around a car. The officers say they saw a little girl inside the car, which was not running. After trying in vain to get into the locked car and urging the little girl, said to be in distress, to pull the door handle, three VUPD officers broke the window to rescue the child.

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She was dehydrated and in mild shock, police said, but recovered fairly quickly after sitting in a cool patrol car and drinking some water. She was taken to Monroe Carrel Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt as a precaution but is expected to be OK.

Amira Thabet Rezk, the child's mother, showed up a few minutes later and said she was unaware she couldn't leave a child in a car with the windows up and the engine off. She told officers she'd been gone a maximum of five minutes, though surveillance footage places it more in the 10 to 20 minute range, according to VUPD.

Rezk is charged with child endangerment.

The rescue of the girl comes a week after a 1-year-old girl died after she was forgotten inside a pick-up truck in East Nashville.

Photo via Metro Nashville Police