crime

1-yr-old girl left in car for 4 hours while mother plays pachinko

33 Comments

Police in Shingu, Fukuoka Prefecture, said Saturday that an 18-year-old woman and her 36-year-old male friend have been arrested after the woman's one-year-old daughter was left inside a car for four hours while they played pachinko.

A policeman on patrol found the girl inside the car in the parking lot of a karaoke establishment at about 6 p.m. on Friday, NTV reported. When the mother and her companion returned to the car, they told police they had been playing pachinko since about 2 p.m.

The engine was left running and the air conditioner was on, police said, adding the child was unharmed. Police said the pair will be charged with endangering the child's life.

© Japan Today

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33 Comments
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I am sure there is a couple out there unable to have kids who would treat this child better. Remove the child from the "home" and allow a better couple the chance to raise this child as they should be. Every damn year... At least this child didn't die.

19 ( +23 / -4 )

engine was left running and the air conditioner was on

idling - that most primitive parental instinct

9 ( +11 / -2 )

good thing the police find the girl, and great thing that charges will be pressed. some people should be neutered

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Criminal charges should also be warranted for parents who endanger the lives of their children while they focus their attention on the screens of their mobile phones. Two days ago I saw a woman pushing a baby stroller across the street, totally absorbed in her texting, after the light had already turned to red. Just a matter of time before she and her infant get squashed by a trucker hopped up on speed.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

She's 18, and her "male friend" is 36, WTF?

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Mother - 18 Child - 1 "Male friend" - 36

Those three things are all the commentary needed on this.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

the child was unharmed

Really? How the hell would they know? Just because she was still breathing? What sort of irresponsible git would leave a one year old in a car alone for fours hours? Obviously, this kind of git!

3 ( +7 / -4 )

18 year old mother with 1 year old kid...borderline underage motherhood. Is there no Child Welfare Services here to evaluate whether the young biological mother is capable of being a mother? In countries like Norway, the child would have been taken away and put in responsible foster care. Sounds cruel, but cases such as reported above justifies it.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

@Disillusioned - perhaps the ploice did their job and checked the child's health. That's how the hell they'd know.

Anyway back to the story, it's good (and sadly unusual) to hear of a child surviving in this kind of story.

However, the fact that the air-con was on indicated that the mother planned to leave the child alone for a long period of time - this needs to be punished.

Don't really get the posts mentioning here age either - some of the parents who've left their child to basically boil to death were older but obviously none the wiser for it.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I understand wanting to leave the a/c on, but pretty Easy to imagine the kid dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

But what is an 18 yo with a boyfriend doing wasting time at pachinko?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

During fiscal year 2013, there were 16 similar cases ( 22 children were rescued from parking lots). Between 1987 and 2009, 76 children died due to a parent (parents) playing pachinko.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

And summer begins. You always know its summer in Japan when the "Child dies in car while parents play pachinko" stories start.

Lucky that someone in this situation was sensible enough to leave the air con on. Although cant help but wonder what would have happened if the kid was older and tried to drive away...

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Kudos to the police officer, who actually got up and left the koban to walk around and see if anything was wrong in his neighborhood ...

6 ( +7 / -1 )

JT might as well cut and paste this story for the rest of the summer.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Irishosaru - Gotts love the Irish for falling into a blatantly obvious trap. I was referring to the parents.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Japanese? or Gaijin?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's a case of pachinko ball size mentality. I often pass by the those patrons lined up waiting to gamble away their time hoping to score baskets of balls. For some reason, they just don't look like the average going to work people.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Idiots, at least the child is safe.

This happens all too often in Japan.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This 18 year old is an idiot, and the loser 30 something is another real winner for the Darwin Award! My god, leave a baby for hours in car by itself, in this horrible heat, they are lucky the baby did not die, as it happens in so many other cases.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The pair will be charged with endangering a child's life plus leaving a vehicle with its engine running. A one year old child knows what is done to her. Who will help her to overcome the pain?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Pachinko............when will the Japanese admit that this is a gambling addiction. Play poker, get arrested. play pachinko, sit next to an off duty cop. Every year in the summer, same crap. Not so many headlines in the winter but it still goes on.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Everyone knows Japan gas a problem with children dying in hot cars in summer yet the staff still do not check. That poor child was there for four hours. At least the police are checking but they are doing what the parlour staff should be doing.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

charged... with leaving a vehicle with its engine running

Is that illegal, or just another vague 'etiquette' violation?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

sensei258JUN. 29, 2013 - 04:42PM JST She's 18, and her "male friend" is 36, WTF?

Ho way....I mean....no way!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Everyone knows Japan has a problem with children dying in hot cars in summer

It's not just a Japan problem. Here in South Texas, children and pets are left in vehicles during hot weather all too often. Recently, a mother was arrested for leaving four kids in a car while she was grocery shopping. One good thing, folks will call the police or have drivers paged when car doors are locked.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I suspect the only reason the policeman noticed the car (and then the child in it) is because the engine was left running.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Vertuoso Just a matter of time before she and her infant get squashed by a trucker hopped up on speed."

Or a trucker busy texting..

Anyway Akuma is happy this kid's okay.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This is such an archtypical Japanese story. I really want it to go away, but every summer it happens again, many times. So sad. Somebody should really get together and patrol the pachinko parking lots to prevent these morons from killing their children.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

neuter them.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

These people = absolute rubbish

0 ( +1 / -1 )

All pachinko and karaoke parking lots should, by law, have attendants present at all times so as to refuse entry to their respective establishments to anyone who leaves a child inside the car (or failing that, keep a constant check on all the vehicles and immediately report to the police if a child has been left unattended). These places make an absolute fortune, so there should be no problem in funding such a remedy to this problem.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

they must have pat themselves on their backs for thinking of leaving the engine and a/c on

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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