A toddler was pulled from a locked, overheated car outside a Pennsylvania casino on the night of April 14 after his mother had been inside gambling for well over two hours, court records and police documents show. The boy, just 14 months old, was found drenched in sweat and strapped into a rear car seat in the Parx Casino parking lot along the 2900 block of Street Road in Bensalem.<\/p>\n
Security personnel at Parx flagged the unoccupied vehicle to Bensalem Township Police, who arrived at approximately 9 p.m. and used a lockout kit to open the car. Emergency responders on the scene described the child as \u201cvery hot,\u201d and he was also found wearing a soiled diaper, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was taken to a nearby hospital for medical evaluation, though no further update on his condition appeared in the affidavit.<\/p>\n
While some officers attended to the child, others traced the vehicle to its owner inside the casino. They found Leola Dualuqua, 37, of Willingboro, New Jersey, at a gambling station. Surveillance footage from Parx confirmed she had walked from her car into the building shortly before 6:30 p.m. and had not gone back to the vehicle before police located her.<\/p>\n
The affidavit cited weather data showing outdoor temperatures of 85 degrees Fahrenheit shortly before 6 p.m., falling to 81 degrees by shortly before 9 p.m. The National Weather Service has documented that interior vehicle temperatures can spike 20 degrees within 10 minutes of parking and climb as high as 50 degrees above outside air within an hour.<\/p>\n