CHARLOTTE — A now-viral video shows the moment a woman spotted a child alone in a Tesla in the Metropolitan parking deck in Midtown Tuesday.
Kierstyn McBrayer said she and her friends were leaving Trader Joe’s when they noticed the child. She started looking for their parent and began recording.
“You can’t leave your kid in a car alone,” McBrayer said in the video. “How dangerous is that?”
McBrayer said she and her friends saw the car was in Pet Mode and expected to see a dog in the backseat. Instead, they saw a child strapped into a car seat.
Tesla’s Pet Mode allows owners to keep air conditioning on while doors are locked from the outside. It is not intended for children.
The video also shows the child’s parent returning to the car nearly five minutes later and the back and forth that ensued as McBrayer confronted her.
“She basically said since my friends and me aren’t parents ourselves that we don’t really understand her life’s circumstances,” McBrayer said.
For her, it’s more about what could have happened.
“There could have been a kidnapping, someone could have crashed into your car,” she said. “You just never know.”
In North Carolina, caregivers can be charged with child endangerment or neglect if they leave a child alone in a car.
Channel 9’s Miana Massey spoke to Amy Hamilton with Safe Kids Mid-Carolinas about the potential dangers of leaving your child in the car unattended.
“Do you want to trust your child’s life to a computer chip?” she said. “While convenience sake it sounds great, could you live with yourself if the outcome was not positive? For our group the recommendation would be never leave your child alone, and for us children are considered under the age of 16, in a motor vehicle.”
McBrayer hopes this serves as a learning lesson for all parents.
“I just hope she never does this again or any parent does that,” she said.
The woman who left the child inside the car drove away before police or garage security arrived. McBrayer says CMPD told her officers took the woman’s license plate number and will be on the lookout for the vehicle.