Well, in a hope to liven spirits around CEG, here is a somewhat ammusing and sad story from the newspaper that I work for in Oregon about a somewhat overcrowded Taurus.
Police find four kids in trunk of crowded car
The driver and an adult passenger were arrested.
ALLISON PYBURN
Statesman Journal
July 22, 2002
Two Salem residents were arrested on charges of reckless endangerment Sunday after police stopped their car and found four children locked inside the trunk.
When police approached the Ford Taurus sedan, they found eight passengers in the front and back seats, plus the others in the trunk, said Keizer Police officer James DeVaney. Adults in the car told police they were driving to a family barbeque and ran out of room in the car.
Crisanto Beltran-Nieto, 20, and Soco Beltran, 24, both of Salem, were arrested, DeVaney said. Beltran is the mother of one of the children, and Beltran-Nieto was the car?s driver.
Dr. Chris Richards, emergency room physician at Oregon Health & Science University, said they were lucky the children in the trunk didn?t die from heat stroke or suffocation.
?It?s pretty similar to putting someone in the oven and closing the door. Once your temperature gets up to 105, 106, your brain just cooks,? Richards said.
A motorist notified officers after seeing what looked like a child in the vehicle?s trunk at the Keizer Albertsons. Police pulled over a 1989 Taurus at 10:37 a.m., as it was leaving a 7-Eleven store near the 100 block of McNary Estates Drive, DeVaney said.
Officers found an adult in each front seat and an infant between them in an unsecured car seat. Five people were crammed in the back seat. Two of them were young children stuffed under three or four large bags of groceries and a cooler, DeVaney said.
?When I first walked up, I noticed a big large cooler in the back seat, on top of what I thought was a bunch of clothes. When I looked closer, I saw a head and eyeballs sticking out at me,? DeVaney said.
The four were in the trunk for about 20 minutes before the family stopped at Albertsons to get groceries, DeVaney said. ?They didn?t really seem too concerned about it,? he said.
It is unknown if the children were released at Albertsons. Police estimate the children remained in the trunk another 10 minutes after the family left the grocery store.
When police stopped the car, the adults were unable to open the trunk because the lock was damaged, DeVaney said.
Beltran-Nieto tried to open the trunk with a screwdriver for several minutes. Concerned about the lives of the children ? it was about 75 degrees at the time ? police called Keizer Fire Department for help.
Officers assisted Beltran-Nieto in removing a portion of the back seat to reveal four youths aged 7, 8, 12 and 14 lying partially on top of each other in the fetal position.
The children were sweating profusely and panting. Both are signs they may have been suffering from heat exhaustion or stroke, Richards said.
Beltran-Nieto and Soco Beltran were transported to Marion County jail. Both face up to a $5,000 fine and 1 year in jail.
The children were released to one of the adults at the scene. There are no plans for further investigation in the case, DeVaney said.
?As long as I?ve been a cop, this is probably the strangest thing I?ve ever seen,? he said.
