Police Captain Left Her 2-Year-Old in Car Screaming for Help While She Went Fishing

A police captain in Nebraska was cited for allegedly leaving her 2-year-old daughter in a hot car while she and her partner went fishing.

In a press conference on Monday, August 24, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner explained that officers responded to the area of Pawnee Lake after two people fishing discovered a 2-year-old in distress and crying for help inside a locked minivan in the heat. At the time, he said the outside temperature was 78 degrees and stressed to the public to be aware of just how hot a car can get inside even on a day with only mild heat outside.

Wagner explained that it was eventually determined the child belonged to off-duty Lincoln Police Department Captain Mayde McGuire and her partner, Mary Tobiassen. They were found fishing roughly 320 feet from the car. Both women were cited, but not arrested, for misdemeanor child abuse.

The department determined that the child had been alone in the hot car for a “minimum of 28 minutes.” After being evaluated at the scene, the toddler did not have any injuries. According to KOLN, the mother had removed the child from the car before deputies arrived at the scene.

The couple who discovered the child in distress and called 911, Braydon Nichols and Izabella Glover, told the outlet they were walking by the car and heard the child screaming.

“I mean it was a black minivan with black dark tint. I didn’t see her hands until she put her hands against the window,” Nichols said.

“I went over and she wasn’t in her booster seat,” Glover said. “That’s when she had crawled over the seats to get in the front of the car to start banging and that’s when we could really see her.“

McGuire took a breath test at the scene and her blood-alcohol concentration was 0.108.

Sheriff Wagner noted that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.