A 40-year-old Czech tourist in Italy has been charged with child abandonment after she locked her four-year-old son in her car so that she could go off skiing.
She defended herself by saying she’s left her other teenage son to look after the youngster, but the teenager decided to go off skiing as well, reports Italy24.
The incident happened at the Ski Lagorai ski resort in Castello Tesino on Thursday, February 15. A resort employee who noticed a crying child locked in a parked car at the resort could not open the locked door of the vehicle, and so notified the local police, or Carabinieri as they’re called in Italy.
The Carabinieri and members of the military arrived to help in this very different kind of mountain rescue operation. They calmed the child down but decided not to smash a window to get him out, as that may have distressed him and put him in danger.
Instead they alerted the mother using public announcements over the resort’s speakers, then waited at the lift turnstiles.
The woman, who arrived after an hour and a half still with her skis on her feet and snowshoes in her hands, tried to defend her actions by saying that she’d left the child alone in the car because he didn’t want to ski and was throwing tantrums. So she’d left her other 13-year-old son to supervise his brother, but at some point the teenager had decided to go off skiing too.
Talk about parenting by example.
The Czech mother has been reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento.
- The best women’s ski jackets 2024: style, protection and warmth
