Breaking a Window to Save a Baby in a Hot Car Won’t Get You Arrested, Leaving a Baby in a Hot Car Will

Angela Radtke of San Antonio, TX was walking through a parking lot when she noticed a baby unattended locked inside a hot car.

She wanted to bust out the window and rescue the baby but other bystanders, including a security guard, warned her not to do it. Why? Because she might be arrested.

If you are afraid of being arrested for smashing out a window and saving baby, that's fine so long as you smash the window and save the baby. If you are afraid of being arrested and don't smash the window and save the baby, you're a selfish dishrag of a human being.

Luckily, Angela Radtke is NOT a selfish dishrag of a human being. She busted out the window, reached in and unlocked the door and saved the baby. Why? Because as she told KENS-TV in the video below: "I don't care if I get arrested, I'm going to save this baby."

While Radtke was not arrested, the father of the baby was. He had been inside shopping for forty minutes.

Texas has a "Good Samaritan" law, as do all 50 states, which protects those who, in good faith, try to give emergency care. South Dakota has a Good Samaritan law on the books as well. While I'm not a lawyer, I assume that any honest steps taken to provide emergency care, including busting out a window, would be protected as part of the law.

I called Officer Sam Clemens at the Sioux Falls Police Department and asked him if anyone had ever smashed out a car window to save a baby. He didn't recall an incident involving a baby, but he did say that people had smashed out windows to save dogs from hot cars. The rescuers were not arrested or charged in any of those cases.