Dad Allegedly Refused Cops' Help as Daughter Was Trapped in Locked Car Baking Under the Hot Nevada Sun
On Oct. 5, a man in Las Vegas allegedly refused to break his car window despite the fact that his 1-year-old daughter was locked inside.
Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department offered their help, but the man, Sidney Deal, 27, declined and insisted his daughter was fine because the air conditioning was on, authorities said.
By the time officers smashed the window, Deal’s daughter, Sayah, was dead.
Deal was later booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of child abuse or neglect causing substantial bodily harm, jail logs show, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
The man was being held on a $20,000 bond.
According to police, Deal’s girlfriend said the couple had just finished having a fight. She reportedly said she told him to leave with his daughter, and Deal complied.
However, after putting Sayah in the car, Deal allegedly returned and continued arguing with his girlfriend for 15 minutes while his daughter sat in the running car.
Later, “[t]he girlfriend said he returned to ask if she could call his insurance company because he’d locked his keys inside the car,” according to the Sun.
“When his partner was on the phone with an insurance company representative who offered to send a tow truck, Sidney Deal told her to hang up because he didn’t agree with the cost, according to his arrest report,” the outlet added.
Deal then flagged down officers, telling them he accidentally had locked his keys inside the car and that his little girl was inside, the Sun reported.
When one officer offered to call a locksmith or tow truck, or to break the window in order to save his daughter, Deal reportedly declined, saying he wanted to borrow a phone to call his brother instead.
Deal’s brother, like the officers, reportedly offered to break the window.
However, Deal again refused, complaining that the cost of repair would be too much, police said.
According to the Sun, police believe the 1-year-old girl was sitting in the car for about an hour.
By the time they got to her after eventually breaking the window, she was dead.
The girl, who wasn’t fastened, had been walking around the seats before lying down on the floor, police said.
Deal reportedly said he thought she had fallen asleep.
This story is utterly tragic.
Although Deal’s alleged actions were completely negligent, he likely didn’t realize what was going to happen to his daughter.
That being said, this serves as an important reminder to never leave a child locked in a hot car and to always comply with police officers.
No matter how much money it would have cost to fix the car window, even the most exorbitant price is nothing compared to how much that little girl’s life was worth.
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