2-Year-Old Locked in Hot Car After Interrupting Mom’s Movie, Say Police

According to police, a Florida teen is accused of leaving her 2-year-old daughter locked up in a hot car while she and her siblings watched the new “Smurfs” movie at a movie theater. At the time, the heat index was recorded at 107 degrees.

Local police have charged 18-year-old Tripura Merriex with felony child neglect after she allegedly left her daughter alone in a 2002 Cadillac Escalade at the Regal Cinema 90 on U.S. Highway 90 in Lake City.

After witnesses reported Merriex to 911 and had to break a window to gain access to the child, police arrived on the scene.

In the arrest report, an officer states, “After observing the child in the front passenger seat, I applied a window break to the driver side window.”

Police discovered Merriex’s daughter “visibly distressed” inside the woman’s car. The police officer claims that Merriex’s daughter “had a flushed red appearance, was sweating profusely, and was crying in distress” while she was in the Escalade for at least half an hour.

Merriex’s arrest report on Monday describes her “very nonchalant demeanor as her child was in the locked vehicle.” “Although she “acted as though the whole situation wasn’t a big deal as she just stood next to her vehicle,” police said she “accidentally” locked her daughter inside the car.

According to police, Merriex claimed that she took her daughter to see “Smurfs” with her own brother and sister and that the child “kept crying loudly” and caused a “disturbance” during the film.

“Mrs. Merriex said that she brought [her daughter] out to the lobby to keep from disrupting other movie viewers’ experience,” according to the arrest report.

Merriex reportedly acknowledged doing this “a few times” before abandoning her daughter in the Escalade, according to police.

According to police, the temperature at the time was 94 degrees with a heat index of 107. “Frosted, sweating, and crying,” Merriex’s daughter looked, according to a Lake City Police press release.

Investigators were allegedly informed by a Regal Cinema employee that Merriex seemed “very annoyed with her daughter’s crying.” According to the arrest report, she left the “Smurfs” performance on occasion to go check on the victim before allegedly assigning her siblings to complete the task.

“After a few trips of Mrs. Merriex going out to her vehicle, the other two individuals that she had come into the cinema with started alternating out on every other trip,” police said.

According to her arrest report, Merriex “had a history of very un-rational decision making when it came to her dealing with their daughter’s crying,” as her husband subsequently stated in interviews.

According to the report, he accused her of having “negative reactions to stress related to being a parent” and of finding it difficult to exercise “patience” when it came to raising the child.

In a statement released on Monday, Chief of Police Gerald Butler said, “Our officers acted swiftly to ensure the safety of this young child.” It is unacceptable to leave a child alone in a car in these circumstances. We are grateful that the child is safe and encourage all parents to put their kids’ welfare first at all times.”

Merriex is presently being held on a $50,000 bond at the Columbia County Jail.