BABY in car, MUM in pub

A Whangarei mother has been charged after allegedly leaving her baby boy alone in a car while she played the pokie machines in a hotel bar.
A member of the public rang police about 3.15pm yesterday after spotting the distressed baby in a locked car opposite the Grand Hotel in the central city.
The 10-month-old baby was wrapped in a blanket and lying in a carseat in the rear of the vehicle.
Sun was streaming through the window and the baby was crying.
A passer-by helped Constable James McCullough unlock the car by reaching in through the window and unlocking the door.
Meanwhile, other officers had found the 21-year-old mother in Shunters Bar across the road, where bar staff reported she had been playing the pokie machines for at least an hour.
The woman, from Whau Valley, was charged and will appear in the Whangarei District Court later this month.
Adults can face a fine of up to $1000 if convicted on the charge of leaving children under the age of 14 without reasonable care and supervision.
Mr McCullough said Child Youth and Family would also be contacted.
He warned parents not to leave "defenceless" children alone in hot cars.
"Even cracking the window open in this sort of heat has very little effect," he said.
"Parents and caregivers shouldn't be leaving their children alone in vehicles in summer or winter."
Young children left alone were put at greater risk of being abducted or being killed by playing with matches.
"Parents who leave kids alone for a lengthy period of time will be charged and taken to court," Mr McCullough said.
The message from community paediatrician Roger Tuck about leaving children in cars was succinct: "They can die. It's that simple."
Children left in hot cars could become hyperthermic where their bodies absorbed more heat than they could dissipate.
The heat-regulating mechanisms in the body become overwhelmed and the body temperature climbs uncontrollably.
"It's lunacy to leave a baby in a car on a hot day. Temperatures inside a car can soar on a hot summer's day," Mr Tuck said.
Last month a man allegedly stole a car then abandoned it after realising there was a sleeping toddler in the back seat.
The 3-year-old's father left the engine running while he went to pick up a friend on September 19 in Lower Hutt after. The car and child were found three hours later in Naenae. A 19-year-old man appeared in the Lower Hutt District Court charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, theft and abandoning a child.