RIVERDALE, UT (KSTU/CNN) – Utah Police arrested a mother after they say she locked her two young children in the trunk of her car while she went shopping at Wal-Mart.
Several people helped the children, ages 2 and 5, escape from the locked trunk before their mother Tori Castillo, 39, returned from the store.
Heidi, who wanted to keep her last name anonymous, and her friend were unloading groceries Thursday evening when they heard noise coming from a car’s trunk. They quickly realized the noise was coming from a child.
"I started talking to the little girl that I could hear screaming. She was like, 'Mom, let me out. Let me out. Mom, help.’ She was screaming and crying,” Heidi said.
Heidi says she yelled back, guiding the girl to open the emergency latch from the inside.
When the trunk popped open, the women found not one but two children, scared and sweating from the heat.
"Both kids came out like… spring-loaded. They just jumped out at us. One lady took the 2-year-old. I took the 5-year-old. I was like, ‘This can't be what we're finding,’” Heidi said.
While the women were waiting for police, Castillo emerged from the store.
"The only explanation she had was my babysitter didn't show up,” Heidi said.
Castillo was charged with four counts of child abuse involving physical injury and one charge of theft.
The children are now in safe hands.
Copyright 2017 KSTU, Weber County Sheriff’s Office via CNN. All rights reserved.
