A Johnson County woman is facing charges after allegedly leaving her 2-year-old in a car.
Prosecutors charged Stephanie Francis, 23, with one count of child endangerment.
According to court documents, on Feb. 20, Mission police officers were called to a Target store to check the welfare of a toddler who was left unattended in a vehicle.
The reporting party said she saw a child left alone in a car with the windows cracked.
When police arrived they located the car and talked with Francis. She said her 2-year-old daughter had thrown up on herself in the back seat of the car. Francis said the child was very dirty so she didn't want to bring her inside Target, according to court documents.
Francis said she decided to bring her other daughter inside Target but left the 2-year-old inside the car unrestrained. Francis said she only left the child unrestrained in the car for approximately 10 minutes while she and her other daughter went inside to buy new clothes, according to court documents.
Court documents say surveillance video from the Target store showed Francis and one small child enter the store and leave approximately 12 minutes later.
kidsandcars.org Director Amber Andreasen says cracking windows doesn’t change the inside temperature of a car enough.
“The inside of a vehicle acts as a greenhouse and it heats up very quickly. 3/4’s of the increase in temperature happens in the first 10 minutes. When you combine that with the fact that a child's body temperature rises 3 to 5 times faster than adults. You really have a recipe for disaster,” said Andreasen.
Temperatures on the mostly sunny day peaked near 71 degrees. Temperatures inside the car could’ve reached upwards of 90 degrees.
Prosecutors requested a $3,500 bond.
