WATCH ABOVE: Police in Apopka, Florida release video of mom who was arrested Sunday after she left her kids in a car while she went into a bar to drink. Bob Kealing reports.
TORONTO – Police in Apopka, Florida, have pressed charges against a 35-year-old woman after they say she left her two young kids inside a hot car while she visited a local bar.
Police also suspect the young kids were present so they could blow into the car’s breathalyzer interlock device, which analyzes the (supposed) driver’s blood alcohol content before allowing the vehicle to start.
Apopka Police arrested April R. King Sunday afternoon on suspicion of child neglect after multiple bar patrons reported seeing her two young children being left inside a hot car while she went inside for a drink.
WATCH: Hear from the father of the two kids left in the hot car while their mother went into a local bar
Police Sgt. Ed Chittenden told Global News that police were called to Frogger’s Bar in Apopka, a suburb of Orlando, just before 1:00 p.m. this past Sunday.
According to Chittenden, police were told that the woman had left her two children – ages 2 and 4 – in the car while she went into the watering hole for a drink.
“The heat index in Apopka was over 100 [that day],” Chittenden told Global News. “Obviously, it was a very hot day.”
According to local weather reports, the temperature in Apopka was between 32 and 34 degrees Celsius at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
On a 27 C day, your car warms up to dangerously hot levels in as few as 10 minutes. A child’s body temperature climbs three to five times faster than an adult’s. And as the heat seeps in, their small bodies aren’t as capable in cooling down, experts say.
READ MORE: Here’s what happens to your body when you’re left in a hot car
King was also seen driving in the parking lot after imbibing alcohol, and may have visited a local cellphone store. Police say an employee at the local AT&T store told them King briefly stopped in the store, but did not have her two kids with her.
When police arrived they found King to be “highly intoxicated” and “belligerent,” according to Chittenden.
WATCH: Silent body camera footage reveals moment ‘drunk’ Mom walked out of bar with kids in hot car
During their exchange, police say King tried to start her vehicle, which was equipped with a breathalyzer interlock device – which her four-year-old son blew into.
“While we don’t want to speculate, we think this wasn’t the first time he had done this,” Chittenden said. “It sure appears he knew what he was doing.”
King was arrested and booked without incident, while her two children were checked by paramedics.
Her driver’s license has been suspended while she awaits a court date.
-With files from Global News’ Carmen Chai
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