A 62-year-old grandfather was arrested and charged with child neglect after his granddaughter was found by Hertz employees in a rental car that the grandfather had returned almost an hour before.
On Monday, October 10, Hertz rental car employees tending to vehicles in a lot at the Daytona Beach International Airport found a toddler in the back seat of a returned vehicle. The vehicle was returned at 5:13 p.m. and the child was found just before 6 p.m., according to Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
Authorities say the child was scared, hot, and had dried tears on her face, but was in good health after she was checked by paramedics. The temperature in the parking lot was about 80 degrees when staff found the child.
Deputies and airport staff initially were unable to make contact with the driver, 62-year-old David Towner, before they received a call from the child’s mother.
The mother explained that she was on her way to the airport to be reunited with her daughter, who she had just learned her father had left in a rental car and not at his home, as he had told her.
Detectives used airport security video and interviewed staff to confirm that Towner, who is from Port Orange, had been babysitting his granddaughter for the day and had left her in the vehicle upon returning it.
Police say Towner was remorseful and cooperative before he was arrested and charged with one count of child neglect.
The child was returned to her mother and the Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident.