Grandfather facing neglect charge for leaving toddler in rental car at Florida airport

A Florida man accused of mistakenly leaving his granddaughter inside a locked rental car at a Florida airport is facing charges.

The grandfather, identified as 62-year-old David Towner, was hit with a count of child neglect. He “was remorseful and cooperative with deputies,” the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

The incident unfolded Monday evening at Daytona Beach International Airport. A Hertz employee discovered the girl, who is less than 2 years old, in the vehicle shortly after it was returned by her grandfather. She’d been inside and alone in the hot car for about 45 minutes before she was rescued.

Authorities said temperatures inside the vehicle climbed to about 80 degrees.

A toddler was left inside a locked rental car when it was returned by her grandfather to an airport in central Florida

“The child was scared and hot, but thankfully in good health when checked by paramedics,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Deputies arrived to find the employee carrying the child, whose face was warm and streaked with dried tears, but was breathing normally.”

A short time after she was found, her mother phoned authorities to alert them her father had left her daughter inside the vehicle and that he was on his way back to get her. Towner was instead transported to the Volusia County Jail.

A judge ordered him released on $2,500 bond and he is to have no contact with the toddler, WESH reported.

The little girl has since been reunited with her mother and the Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident.