SUNRISE, Fla. — A tow-truck driver in Florida is facing felony charges after being accused of towing a car that had a little girl inside.
The incident was caught on surveillance video.
The car’s owner told police he was inside a restaurant in Sunrise, Florida, for only two minutes before the tow truck came and took his car and he ran out of the business to try and stop the truck’s driver.
The car was in a fire zone where there were no parking signs, WPLG reported.
The video shows the owner of the car running to the tow truck driver, telling him to stop because his 4-year-old daughter was still in his vehicle.
A witness was heard saying, “His kid in there,” WTVJ reported.
The driver did not stop. Police said in their report that the child fell from the car. Police said she opened the car door, according to WPLG. Her father ran into traffic to save her.
The tow truck’s driver, Sergio Suarez, was arrested on charges of child neglect without great bodily harm.
“This one stood out to me; he towed a vehicle allegedly without checking whether or not there was anyone in the vehicle, and there was a child in the vehicle, who then had to jump out of the vehicle in the middle of the road,” Judge Corey Friedman said in court, according to WFOR.
Police called the towing company and requested that Suarez return the car to the scene.
“He dropped the vehicle away from officers and attempted to leave the scene again,” police said in their report, according to WPLG. They stopped him in the shopping plaza moments later.
Suarez’s lawyer said his client’s coworker checked the car three times before the vehicle was towed. The lawyer said he was not sure where the child neglect charge came from.
Police said the charge came from Suarez’s “failure to inspect the vehicle prior to towing, combined with his decision to continue driving despite being alerted that a child was inside, created a foreseeable and substantial risk of serious bodily harm or death,” according to WPLG.
However, Friedman said, “It doesn’t make sense to me if a 4-year-old had to jump out of the vehicle and had injuries that anybody checked the vehicle because they would have been able to see a 4-year-old,” WFOR reported.
The child had minor injuries, WTVJ reported. WPLG called them superficial.
The towing company has not responded to requests for comment by WPLG and WFOR.
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