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Man Arrested After Leaving 3 Kids In Car In Front Of Orange County Jail

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Police say a man is behind bars after leaving his three young children in an illegally parked in front of the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana while he left to put money in his wife's jail account.

Gerardo Jose Jimenez, 29, of Garden Grove, was being held on $100,000 bail, according to Orange County Jail records.

An off-duty Orange County sheriff's deputy called Santa Ana police just before 5 p.m. Monday to report seeing three children -- an 8-month-old, a 21-month-old toddler and a 7-year-old -- unattended in a Honda Accord outside the jail facility at Sixth and Flower streets, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The vehicle's windows were open and the car's engine was turned off.

The deputy asked people in front of the building if they were related to the kids, then ran into the jail facility to see if he could find one of their parents inside and came across Jimenez, Bertagna said.

Jimenez said he was the children's father and told the deputy not to worry because he had left the Honda's air conditioner on, which wasn't the case, according to Bertagna.

According to Bertagna, Jimenez told investigators he couldn't find a place to park, and did not want to take the children into the building with him because his 5-month-old daughter was asleep and he didn't want to rouse her.

Investigators suspect the children were left alone in the car for at least five minutes before the deputy saw them.

The children were taken to Orangewood Children's Home, and Jimenez was booked on suspicion of cruelty with a child with possible injury or death, Bertagna said.

Authorities warn that children cannot be left unattended in vehicles even for a short amount of time. Pediatrician David Nunez of the Orange County Health Care Agency has said that a 2005 study showed temperatures rise dramatically in a car in just a matter of minutes, even if the windows are cracked open.

It can take as little as 10 minutes for temperatures to reach dangerous levels – as high as 117 degrees, Nunez said. A child's body temperature can rise three to five times faster than that of an adult, and if it reaches 107 degrees, it can be fatal.

Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said his agency has been responding to two to three calls a day about children left alone in vehicles. One of the most common problems is when parents or guardians step out of the vehicle for a moment and the children get locked in accidentally, he said.

When that happens, the captain said its better to call 911 instead of breaking the window.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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